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University  of  California,  San  Diego 
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UCSD  Li). 


THE  STORY  OF 
THE  SALONICA  ARMY 


THE  OIVODE  MISITCH,  G.C.M.G.,  GENERAL  OF  THE 
ROYAL  SERBIAN  ARMY,  WITH  LIEUT.-GENERAL  J.  F. 
MILNE,  C.B.,  D.S.O.,  COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF  BRITISH 
SALONICA  ARMY. 


THE  STORY  OF 
THE  SALONICA  ARMY 


BY 


G.  WARD  PRICE 


OFFICIAL  CORRESPONDENT  WITH  THE  ALLIED  FORCES 
IN  THE  BALKANS 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 

VISCOUNT  NORTHCLIFFE 


NEW  YORK 
EDWARD  J.  CLODE 


COPYRIGHT,  1918,  BY 
EDWARD  J.   CLODS 


PRINTED   IN  THE  UNITED   STATES  OF  AMERICA 


TO  MY  MOTHER 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    Has  Salonica  Been  Worth  While?     ...  1 
II.    The  First  Fighting  and  the  French  Push  into 

Serbia 14 

III.  The  Bulgar  Attack  on  the  Tenth  Division      .  44 

IV.  The  "Bird-cage" 63 

V.    Getting  Ready ;  and  Incidents  of  the  Spring  .  70 

VI.    Ourselves  and  the  Greeks:  Eelations  at  Sa- 
lonica        79 

VII.    Ourselves  and  the  Greeks:   Official  Develop- 
ments and  the  "Salonica  Revolution"  .       .  100 
VIII.     The  Resurrection  of  the  Serbian  Army     .       .  123 
IX.    The  Coming  of  the  Russians  and  Italians  .       .  134 
X.    The  Bulgar  Summer  Offensive  of  1916  and  Its 

Check  by  the  Serbs  at  Ostrovo      .       .       .  148 
XI.    The    Push    for    Monastir,    with    British    Co- 
operation       158 

XII.    Monastir  Retaken  .' 183 

XIII.  The  Inevitable  Winter  Lull,  and  the  Begin- 

nings of  Our  Spring  Offensive       .       .       .  197 

XIV.  The  British  Battle  of  Doiran     .       .      • .       .206 
XV.    King  Constantine's  Attitude,  and  the  Occupa- 
tion of  Thessaly        ......  217 

XVI.     The  Great  Impediments:  Transport  and  Fever  253 

XVII.    People,  Places  and  Things  in  Macedonia  .       .  268 

XVIII.    What  is  Happening  in  Albania  .       .       .       .300 


INTRODUCTION 

BY  VISCOUNT  NORTHCLIFFE 

I  am  glad  that  my  friend  Ward  Price  has  written 
this  book. 

In  the  first  place,  no  other  newspaper  corre- 
spondent in  the  Near  East  can  be  better  qualified 
for  the  task,  as  he  has  been  in  close  touch  with  the 
Allied  Army  in  Salonica  since  its  formation. 

Secondly,  I  think  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
that  the  American  public  should  be  well  informed 
on  one  of  the  most  complex  phases  of  the  Great 
War.  Though  I  have  often  marvelled  at  the  thor- 
oughness and  accuracy  of  the  knowledge  many  peo- 
ple in  the  United  States  possess  as  to  the  problems 
the  Allies  have  to  solve  and  the  difficulties  they  have 
to  conquer,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  attitude 
of  Greece  in  the  war  has  puzzled  and  distressed  those 
who  thought  they  understood  her  national  aspira- 
tions. 

Ward  Price,  one  of  the  ablest  of  war  corre- 
spondents, throws  a  flood  of  light  on  this  side  of  the 
Balkan  question.  He  makes  clear  the  chicanery 
which  prevented  the  Greeks  from  following  their 
natural  bent.  He  sweeps  aside,  once  and  for  all, 
the  hollow  pretence  of  Germany  that  her  dastardly 
action  in  Belgium  finds  a  parallel  in  the  treatment 
of  Greece  by  the  Allies. 


x  INTRODUCTION 

That  is  the  one  point  on  which  public  opinion  in 
the  United  States  may  need  guidance.  It  was,  per- 
haps, the  most  plausible  of  the  many  specious  pleas 
put  forth  by  Teuton  apologists;  yet  it  has  not  a 
shred  of  foundation  in  fact.  Greece,  or,  to  speak 
correctly,  the  King  of  Greece  and  his  pro-German 
court,  broke  the  solemn  treaty  entered  into  with  the 
Serbians.  They  misled  and  hoodwinked  the  chan- 
celleries of  the  Entente.  Not  once,  but  many  times, 
did  their  acts  call  for  severe  treatment  at  the  hands 
of  the  Allied  nations.  They  overthrew  the  Greek 
Constitution,  and  imprisoned  or  drove  into  exile  the 
statesmen  who  really  represented  the  Greek  people. 

Just  what  this  duplicity  of  King  Constantine  and 
his  supporters  cost  the  defenders  of  democracy  is  set 
forth  herein,  chapter  and  verse,  much  of  it  from 
Ward  Price's  personal  observation. 

Therefore,  I  commend  the  book  most  cordially  to 
readers  in  the  United  States.  It  is  the  most  glorious 
attribute  of  our  common  cause  that  the  more  widely 
it  is  understood  the  more  strongly  does  it  appeal  to 
the  heart  and  brain  of  humanity.  That  is  why  we 
should  welcome  all  well-informed  contributions  to  the 
literature  of  the  Great  War.  They  constitute,  as 
has  been  well  said  by  a  great  American,  "  the  evi- 
dence in  the  case." 


New  York  City. 


SUMMARY  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN 

How  we  came. 

Allies  landed  at  Salonica,  October,  1915.  They 
came  at  the  invitation  of  M.  Venizelos,  Greek  Premier. 
Salonica,  though  neutral  territory,  was  available  as  a 
base  because  Greece  was  united  to  Serbia  by  a  treaty 
of  alliance.  Venizelos  mobilised  the  Greek  Army  to 
co-operate,  but  King  Constantine  unconstitutionally 
drove  him  from  power  when  the  Allies  had  already 
begun  to  land. 

Numbers. 

Our  forces  at  Salonica  were  limited  at  first  to  a  few 
English  and  a  few  French  divisions.  Later  arrived 
the  Serbian  Army  from  Corfu,  and  Russian  and 
Italian  contingents.  Later  still,  one  or  two  Greek 
divisions  raised  by  Venizelos.  The  Bulgars  have  al- 
ways outnumbered  us,  have  heavier  artillery  and  hold 
the  stronger  positions. 

First  stage,  (Oct.-Dec.,  1915). 

Determined  but  unsuccessful  attempt  by  French  to 
join  hands  with  the  retreating  Serbians.  Subse- 
quent retirement  of  French  on  Salonica,  a  British 
division  which  had  been  protecting  their  flank  be- 
coming involved  in  the  retreat. 

zi 


xii  SUMMARY  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN 

Second  stage,  (Jan.~Marcht  1916), 
Creation  of  the  "  entrenched  camp  "  of  Salonica. 

Third  stage,  (April-June,  1916). 

Gradual  moving  up  of  the  Allied  troops  towards 
the  Greek  frontier.  Establishment  there  of  a  line 
to  serve  either  as  an  advanced  position  to  resist  an 
enemy  attack  or  as  a  taking-off  place  for  an  Allied 
offensive.  Much  building  of  roads,  bridges,  railways, 
piers, — the  country  lacking  all  such  means  of  trans- 
port. 

Fourth  stage,  (July-August,  1916). 

Bulgar  advance  on  both  flanks,  reaching  to  Lake 
Ostrovo  in  the  west  and  Cavalla  in  the  east. 

Fifth  stage,  (Sept.-Nov.,  1916). 

Thrust  back  of  the  offensive  of  the  Bulgars  in  the 
west,  culminating  in  the  recapture  of  Monastir. 

Holding  attacks  and  local  gains  on  the  British 
sector. 

Sixth  stage,  (Dec.,  1916-Feb.,  1917). 

Winter  of  enforced  inactivity — owing  to  mud — 
and  preparation  for  spring  offensive. 

Seventh  stage,  (March-May,  1917). 

Attacks  in  force  by  Allies  along  front  from  Lake 
Ochrida  to  Lake  Doiran.  Heavy  fighting,  but  no  sub- 
stantial gain  of  ground. 


SUMMARY  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN  xiii 

Eighth  stage,  (June,  1917). 

Occupation  of  Thessaly  by  Allies.  Restoration  of 
Venizelos  to  power  and  acquisition  of  co-operation  of 
the  Greek  Army. 

Present  situation,  (summer,  1917). 

Eighteen  months  of  very  great  labour,  much  sick- 
ness and  hard  fighting,  whenever  occasion  offered, 
have  left  the  Balkan  campaign  in  a  temporary  condi- 
tion of  deadlock.  As  things  stand  at  present  the 
enemy's  front  and  our  own  have  proved  mutually 
impregnable.  Future  developments  may  alter  this, 
notably  the  arrival  of  Greek  reinforcements. 


CHAPTER  I 
HAS  SALONICA  BEEN  WORTH  WHILE? 

"T  IT  THAT  is  the  Salonica  Army  doing? "  is  a 

%/  %/     question  which  hundreds  of  thousands  of 

Englishmen  have  asked  at  one  time  or 

another,  and  one  which  this  book  is  an  attempt, 

however  inadequate,  to  answer.     But  the  spirit  of 

the  question  really  goes  beyond  the  letter,  and  the 

average  man  by  this  enquiry  means,  "  Why  has  the 

Salonica  Army  not  done  more?" 

The  aims  for  which  an  Allied  expedition  to  the 
Balkans  was  warmly  advocated,  especially  in  France, 
in  the  autumn  of  1915,  have  fallen  a  great  way  short 
of  the  fulfilment  then  expected  for  them.  The 
rescue  of  invaded  Serbia  and  the  erection  of  a 
barrier  across  Germany's  direct  road  to  Turkey 
were  the  ends  to  which  the  public  looked  at  the 
time  of  the  landing  at  Salonica,  and  the  feeling  of 
disappointment  that  no  such  striking  and  decisive 
goals  have  been  achieved  has  bred  a  mood  of  dis- 
satisfaction with  the  Allied  Army  in  the  Balkans 
which  it  by  no  means  deserves,  when  its  quite  in- 
adequate numbers  and  equipment  for  tasks  of  such 
magnitude  are  taken  into  consideration.  First  of 
all,  the  Allies  arrived  in  the  Balkans  too  late  to  do 
anything  big  there.  Had  they  come  a  little  earlier, 
— in  July,  1915,  for  instance,  to  reinforce  the  Serbian 
Army,  which  was  then  still  in  existence  as  a  fighting 

1 


2  THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

force,  it  might  possibly  have  been  a  different  story. 
But  in  October,  when  our  troops  began  to  land, 
Serbia  was  already  lost,  outnumbered  and  over- 
whelmed by  the  Austrians  from  the  north  and  the 
Bulgars  from  the  east.  In  consequence  of  this,  the 
Balkan  Army,  after  a  bold  but  ineffective  attempt 
to  join  up  with  the  retreating  Serbs,  to  save  at  any 
rate  the  southern  part  of  the  country  from  the 
invader,  was  thrown  solely  upon  its  own  resources 
to  achieve  what  it  might.  Nor  did  any  of  the  help 
which  had  been  half  counted  upon  when  the  expedi- 
tion was  first  decided  come  from  the  Greek  Army. 
Instead,  the  Greeks,  after  Venizelos  had  been  driven 
from  office  by  King  Constantine,  constituted  them- 
selves, in  our  rear  and  all  around  us,  a  virtual  enemy 
all  the  more  dangerous  for  being  unavowed. 

Starting  from  this  stone-cold  beginning  then,  with 
the  Bulgars  and  their  German  allies  in  full  possession 
of  Serbia  and  ourselves  having  no  more  than  a  pre- 
carious footing  upon  the  somewhat  dubiously  neutral 
soil  of  Greece,  let  us  consider  some  of  the  obstacles 
which  the  Allied  Army  of  the  Orient  has  since  had 
to  overcome. 

First  and  fundamental  among  these  obstacles 
has  been  the  necessity  of  creating,  importing 
and  improvising,  in  a  mother-naked  land,  the  whole 
of  the  elaborate  organisation  which  a  modern  army 
requires  as  a  foundation  to  work  upon.  When 
you  step  out  of  Salonica  you  step  into  a  virtual 
desert,  roadless,  treeless,  uncultivated,  populated  only 
by  scattered  villages  of  the  most  primitive  kind,  in- 
habited by  a  low-grade  peasantry.  We  found  here 
none  of  the  materials  which  modern  armies  need  for 


HAS  SALONICA  BEEN  WORTH  WHILE?  3 

their  use,  none  of  that  machinery  of  civilisation  which 
in  France,  for  instance,  lies  ready-made  to  the  hand. 
Two  roads,  in  a  condition  quite  inadequate  to  support 
heavy  traffic,  and  three  single  lines  of  railway  ran,  at 
the  most  divergent  angles  possible,  from  Salonica 
towards  the  enemy's  territory.  Apart  from  these 
there  was  hardly  even  a  track  which  in  winter  was 
possible  for  wheeled  traffic.  So  that  from  the  very 
beginning  the  Allied  Forces  have  had  to  build  up 
slowly,  laboriously,  the  whole  of  the  system  of  locomo- 
tion necessary  for  themselves  and  their  supplies, — 
piers,  roads,  bridges,  railways, — all  have  had  to  be 
created  where  nothing  of  the  kind  previously  existed. 
The  army,  in  fact,  has  only  been  able  to  move  up- 
country  at  all  on  condition  of  dragging  with  it  a 
slowspun  network  of  means  of  communication. 

A  handicap  that  has  weighed  heavily  upon  the 
Balkan  Army  is  a  climate  most  unpropitious  for 
soldiering,  cold  and  wet  in  winter,  hot  and  feverish 
in  summer.  In  fact  the  campaigning  season  in  the 
Balkans  may  be  said  to  be  limited  by  weather  condi- 
tions to  a  few  weeks  of  the  spring  and  autumn  of  each 
year.  Winter,  right  up  to  the  beginning  of  April, 
is  a  season  of  snow,  rain,  and,  above  all,  mud.  Tracks 
dissolve  into  quagmires;  main  roads  break  up  into 
holes  and  ridges  impassable  for  motor-traffic,  and 
transport  becomes  a  matter  of  the  very  greatest  diffi- 
culty, testing  almost  to  breaking-point  any  organisa- 
tion of  the  service  of  supply. 

It  has  not,  moreover,  been  entirely  an  element  of 
strength  to  the  Balkan  campaign  that  our  army  there 
is  made  up  of  contingents  of  all  the  Allies.  With 
the  best  will  in  the  world  a  mixed  force  will  not  work 


4  THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

together  so  well  as  a  homogeneous  one.  There  are 
differences  of  language,  differences  of  method,  differ- 
ences of  character.  Each  of  the  Allied  contingents 
has  its  own  Staff,  whose  ideas  have  to  be  co-ordinated 
with  those  of  the  French  General  Staff,  under  General 
Sarrail,  the  Commander-in- Chief.  Coalitions  never 
yet  did  work  without  a  certain  amount  of  friction  now 
and  then.  The  Allied  Governments  themselves  have 
to  hold  constant  Councils  to  keep  their  views  in  har- 
mony. Perhaps  the  creation  of  an  Allied  General 
Staff  at  Salonica  would  obviate  the  little  misunder- 
standings that  at  present  inevitably  arise  sometimes 
between  the  contingents  of  six  nationalities  that  make 
up  our  force  in  the  Balkans. 

Under  the  restrictions  that  I  have  detailed  above, 
what  has  the  Allied  Army  in  the  Balkans  achieved 
since  October,  1915  ?  Certain  facts  may  be  claimed  to 
stand  clearly  to  its  credit: 

1 .  //  the  A  Hies  had  not  come  to  Salonica  the  Germans 

would  have  overrun  and  mastered  the  whole  of 

the  Balkan  Peninsula. 

This  may  be  regarded  as  sure.  The  Greek  king 
was  already  their  man.  His  people  have  certainly 
always  been  against  fighting  anybody,  for  the  Ger- 
mans or  against  them,  but  the  Germans  would  have 
known  how  to  change  all  that. 

2.  Germany  would  have  established  a  submarine 

base  at  Salonica,  and  even  made  of  it  a  Medi- 
terranean Kiel,  if  we  had  not  occupied  it. 
This  is  also  likely.    On  the  other  hand  the  Allied 
Fleets  in  that  case  could  have  blockaded  Salonica  as 
they  blockade  the  Austrian  ports,  and  the  Germans 


HAS  SALONICA  BEEN  WORTH  WHILE?  5 

have  so  many  submarine  bases  in  the  Mediterranean 
already  that  they  do  not  urgently  need  any  more. 

3.  Our  forces  in  the  Balkans  have  held  up  a  relatively 

greater  number  of  the  enemy. 
The  superiority  in  number  of  Germans,  Aus- 
trians,  Bulgars  and  Turks  against  us  has  sometimes 
been  as  great  as  40,000-50,000  men.  The  Balkan 
Army  has  more  than  pulled  its  weight.  But  if  it  had 
never  been  sent  to  the  Balkans  it  would  have  been  pull- 
ing just  as  much  weight  on  some  other  front,  and 
probably  at  much  less  cost,  for  the  great  argument 
against  maintaining  a  merely  holding-front  at  the 
other  end  of  Europe  is  its  terrible  costliness,  espe- 
cially in  sea-transport. 

4.  It  has  given  the  Serbs  back  Monastir  and  kept 

them  together  and  in  heart  as  a  nation. 

This  is  indisputable.  The  Serbs  must  have  lost 
their  spirit  long  ago  if  it  were  not  that  they  have  been 
able  to  fight  their  way  back  on  to  a  narrow  fringe  of 
Serbian  soil. 

But  in  trying  to  form  an  opinion  as  to  whether  the 
Salonica  expedition  was  or  was  not  a  wise  enterprise 
to  undertake,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  how  greatly 
and  unexpectedly  the  general  conditions  of  the  war 
have  changed  since  our  landing  there  was  made.  In 
1915  there  was  apparently  good  reason  for  hoping 
that  effective  co-operation  might  be  possible  between 
a  force  based  on  Salonica  and  the  Russians.  We  did 
not  then  know  to  what  extent  pro-German  internal 
forces  were  at  work  in  Russia,  deliberately  restricting 
her  military  action.  If  Russia  had  been  knocking  at 
the  Bulgarian  door  on  the  other  side  our  fortunes  in 
the  Balkans  might  have  been  far  otherwise.  The 


6  THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

entry  of  Roumania  into  the  war  WRS  the  event  to  which 
the  Allied  Governments  looked  forward  as  the  great 
opportunity  for  the  Salonica  force  to  begin  an  offen- 
sive against  Bulgaria,  henceforth  threatened  from  two 
sides.  But  the  misguided  strategy  which  sent  the 
greater  part  of  the  Roumanian  Army  on  a  badly 
organised  invasion  of  Transylvania,  in  pursuit  of  an 
immediate  territorial  objective  instead  of  using  it  to 
co-operate  with  the  Allies  at  Salonica,  defeated  this 
hope,  which  in  any  case  could  hardly  have  been  real- 
ised, in  view  of  the  treachery  with  which  the  Russian 
Government  then  in  power  deliberately  abandoned 
Roumania  to  the  enemy  in  pursuit  of  its  policy  of 
pro-Germanism  and  a  separate  peace. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  Allied  Army  in 
the  Balkans  has  accepted  its  present  situation  of  stale- 
mate through  inertia.  Not  only  has  it  fought  vigor- 
ously in  the  offensives  that  it  has  undertaken,  but  it 
has  cast  about  for  other  plans  of  campaign  to  follow, 
other  routes  of  penetration  into  the  enemy's  country. 

Apart  from  all  speculation  as  to  what  might  have 
been  done  by  the  Salonica  Army  under  different 
conditions,  as  to  what  point  on  the  map  might  have 
been  reached,  as  to  whether  or  not  it  was  ever  pos- 
sible to  drive  a  wedge  into  Germany's  line  of  com- 
munications with  Turkey,  there  are  considerations  of 
a  larger  nature  to  be  borne  in  mind.  England,  espe- 
cially, cannot  afford  to  disinterest  herself  from  the 
Balkans,  because  the  Balkans  are  one  of  the  principal 
stepping-stones  on  the  way  to  India.  Whatever  else 
might  be  the  conditions  on  which  the  war  were 
brought  to  an  end,  a  peace  which  left  Germany  with 
undisputed  rule  or  even  undisputed  influence  over  the 


HAS  SALONICA  BEEN  WORTH  WHILE?  7 

Balkans  would  be  a  German  victory,  and  the  vast 
sacrifices  which  she  and  her  allies  have  made  would  be 
held  by  Germany  to  be  justified,  if,  as  a  result  of 
them,  she  could  consolidate  this  first  great  stage  of 
her  thrust  towards  India  and  that  dominion  in  Mid- 
dle Asia  which  has  always  been  the  traditional  goal  of 
world-conquerors  and  the  possession  of  which  is  the 
historical  symbol  of  world-supremacy. 

It  is  therefore  of  the  first  importance  to  the  British 
Empire  that  there  should  be  in  the  Balkans  a  barrier- 
state  across  the  path  of  this  German  Drang  nach 
Osten.  Egypt  and  the  Suez  Canal  have  lost  much 
of  their  importance  as  the  gatehouse  of  the  East  now 
that  the  trans-Balkan  railway  runs  straight  through 
from  Berlin  to  Bagdad.  To  quote  a  distinguished 
officer  who  has  much  studied  the  strategic  problems 
of  the  Mediterranean :  "  The  frontier  of  India  should 
be  at  Belgrade ;  we  are  actually  defending  it  at  Bag- 
dad, and  if  the  war  leaves  Germany  with  a  strength- 
ened position  in  the  Near  East,  the  day  may  come 
when  we  have  to  defend  it  at  Bombay." 

All  that  seems,  indeed,  to  presume  a  perpetuation 
of  the  state  of  semi-hostility  that  we  all  hope  the  war 
will  somehow  abolish  as  the  normal  peace-time  condi- 
tion of  international  affairs,  but  until  there  are  more 
signs  than  are  at  present  manifest  that  the  German 
leopard  is  going  to  change  his  spots  and  that  German 
schemes  for  substituting  Germania  for  Britannia 
throughout  the  world  have  ceased  to  be  cherished  the 
defence  of  our  Indian  Empire  will  have  to  be  taken 
into  the  consideration  of  our  statesmen. 

Our  interest  in  Serbia,  then,  is  not  merely  the  sen- 
timental one  of  a  big  ally  for  a  small;  it  is  based  on 


8  THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

something  more  tangible  than  sympathy  for  "  gallant 
little  Serbia."  In  the  Serbians,  with  their  strongly 
marked  national  character,  their  passion  for  inde- 
pendence, their  traditional  Slav  hostility  towards  the 
Teuton,  we  find  the  natural  buffer-state  which  should 
bar  Germany's  way  towards  India  and  the  East  and 
cut  her  off  from  that  outlet  to  the  Mediterranean  at 
Salonica,  which,  if  she  gained  it,  would  change  the 
world's  naval  balance  of  power,  and  force  us  for  the 
defence  of  Egypt  constantly  to  maintain  a  large  fleet 
in  the  Levant. 

Our  going  to  Salonica  has  had,  then,  this  advan- 
tageous consequence, — it  has  been  a  practical  guaran- 
tee that  the  great  and  vital  interests  which  the  Allies, 
especially  ourselves,  possess  in  the  Balkans,  should 
not  be  lost  sight  of;  that  public  attention  should  be 
kept  alive  and  well-informed  upon  a  part  of  the 
world  where  our  diplomatic  blunders  in  the  past  have 
wrought  us  only  too  much  harm,  and  that  the  Serbs, 
that  virile  little  people  whom  destiny  and  the  situa- 
tion of  their  country  have  called  to  play  so  important 
a  part  in  the  modern  history  of  Europe,  should  have 
received  a  practical  gage  of  the  Allies'  support. 

For  it  must  be  remembered  that  had  we  not  gone 
to  Salonica  the  Serbian  nation  by  now  would  have 
been  little  more  than  a  memory.  Practically  the 
whole  of  their  country  has  lain  for  two  years  under 
the  hand  of  an  enemy  who  has  been  working  with  all 
his  talent  for  organisation  to  stamp  out  from  the 
invaded  land  the  consciousness  of  a  separate  race. 
Serbia  has  been  deliberately  divided  up  between  the 
Austrians  and  the  Bulgars.  Hungarian  and  Bulgar 
merchants  and  bankers  have  established  themselves  in 


HAS  SALONICA  BEEN  WORTH  WHILE?  9 

the  towns.  All  the  population  capable  of  working 
has  been  drafted  out  of  the  country  in  captive  gangs 
to  unknown  destinations. 

Under  these  conditions  of  defencelessness  live  the 
great  majority  of  the  wives  and  children  of  the 
Serbian  Army  now  fighting  by  our  side  in  the  Bal- 
kans, cut  off  from  all  communication  with  or  knowl- 
edge of  their  relatives.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that 
this  army,  the  pathetic  remnant  of  the  manhood  of 
Serbia,  could  ever  have  been  re-formed  after  its  com- 
plete disorganisation  in  the  retreat  across  Albania, 
could  ever  have  found  the  spirit  to  fight  again  so  gal- 
lantly and  hopefully  as  it  is  doing,  anywhere  else  than 
on  the  threshold  of  its  own  country.  The  offers  of 
peace  which  the  enemy  has  held  out  to  the  Serbian 
Government,  proposing  to  them  immediate  realisation 
of  the  ideal  of  Greater  Serbia  (the  union  of  all  Serbs, 
Croats  and  Slovenes  into  one  country)  under  Aus- 
trian supremacy  but  with  a  large  measure  of  auton- 
omy, have  been  steadfastly  refused,  thanks  to  the 
confidence  and  hope  with  which  the  close  co-operation 
of  the  Allies  in  the  field  has  filled  the  Serbians. 

But  had  we  deliberately  abandoned  Serbia  to  the 
fate  from  which  we  were  in  fact  powerless  to  save 
her,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  Serbs  would  have 
kept  up  their  courage  and  unyielding  enthusiasm  for 
the  cause  of  the  Allies  during  these  two  years  of  exile 
from  their  homes. 

So  much  for  the  history  of  the  Allied  Army  in  the 
Balkans  up  to  now.  What,  on  the  other  hand,  are  the 
possibilities  that  lie  before  it  in  the  future? 

This  summer  of  1917  has  seen  a  most  important 
political  change  in  the  situation  in  the  Balkans  which 


10          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

may  have  the  effect  of  giving  more  scope  to  the 
Salonica  Army:  M.  Venizelos  has  been  restored  to 
power  and  has  declared  the  Greek  Army  to  be  on  our 
side  against  the  Bulgars. 

The  extent  to  which  the  Greek  Army  will  help  us 
to  make  good  in  the  Balkans,  however,  depends  obvi- 
ously upon  the  extent  to  which  it  is  employed  as  an 
addition  to  our  present  strength  and  not  as  a  substi- 
tute for  troops  which  are  now,  or  were  until  recently, 
there.  4 

When  I  say  "  make  good  in  the  Balkans  "  I  mean 
do  something  which  will  seriously  interfere  with  the 
full  use  of  the  Balkans  which  the  Germans  have  at 
present  as  a  channel  of  communication  with  the  Near 
East  and  as  the  hyphen  of  "  Middle-Europe."  For 
all  that  the  Allies  have  been  able  to  do  towards  that 
end  up  to  now,  we  might  as  well  have  never  left  the 
entrenched  camp  of  Salonica. 

Once  again,  let  no  one  blame  the  Salonica  Force, 
nor  the  Allied  Army  in  the  Balkans  of  which  it 
forms  a  part,  nor  yet  the  Higher  Command.  They 
have  done  all  they  could  with  the  resources  and  the 
strength  they  had.  They  are  up  against  difficulties 
that  must  be  seen  to  be  understood.  It  must  be  re- 
membered that  Salonica,  more  than  any  other  part 
of  the  war,  is  a  joint  undertaking  of  the  Allies,  and 
amid  all  the  difficulties  which  attend  a  coalition  the 
British  General  Staff  has  always  taken  a  line  that  is 
coldly  practical,  uninfluenced  by  illusion,  however 
attractive. 

Even  supposing  that  you  could  get  out  to  Salonica 
the  men  and  the  stores  and  the  supplies  for  a  largely 
increased  army,  there  would  remain  the  problem  of 


HAS  SALONICA  BEEN  WORTH  WHILE?          11 

land-transport  in  the  actual  area  of  operations.  In 
the  mountainous  Balkans  you  are  forced  to  use  very 
much  pack  and  horse-drawn  transport,  and  it  is  the 
forage  required  for  the  animals  that  constitutes  the 
problem  of  the  supply  question,  not  the  food  for  the 
troops.  Of  course,  a  great  deal  of  motor-transport, 
too,  is  needed.  To  supply  our  single  army  corps  on 
the  Struma  last  winter  a  very  large  number  of 
motor-lorries  was  required,  and  there  was  only  one 
road  for  all  of  them  to  run  on. 

As  a  principle  it  has  been  demonstrated  that  if  an 
army  is  going  to  attack  it  must  have  a  railway  behind 
it.  Accordingly,  if  the  Balkan  Army  is  to  penetrate 
into  the  territory  now  held  by  the  enemy  deeply 
enough  to  interfere  with  Germany's  trans-Balkan 
system  of  communications,  there  is  only  one  way  for 
it  to  go, — up  the  Vardar,  for  that  way  lies  the  only 
railway-line.  Transport  up  the  Kresna  defile,  the 
shortest  way  to  Sofia,  would  have  to  be  by  road. 

What,  then,  remains  for  the  Balkan  Army  to  do  to 
help  in  winning  the  war? 

It  has  one  clear  and  important  function  left.  It  is 
firmly  established  on  the  threshold  of  the  enemy's 
stronghold  at  the  very  point  where  the  edifice  is 
weakest.  The  Balkans  are  the  hinge  and  pivot  of 
Germany's  schemes  of  conquest  in  this  war.  North- 
ern France,  Belgium,  perhaps  even  Alsace-Lorraine, 
she  would  abandon  with  equanimity  if  only  she  can 
keep  her  hold  on  this  avenue  to  the  East.  India,  the 
symbol  of  world-empire,  draws  her  like  a  magnet,  and 
the  road  to  it  lies  through  Belgrade,  Sofia  and  Con- 
stantinople. Her  hand  is  at  the  present  moment  on 
the  door  of  the  unexplored  treasure-house  of  Asia 


12          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

Minor,  and  she  is  desperately  anxious  to  keep  it  there. 

Her  success  in  doing  so  depends  entirely  on  her 
power  to  maintain  the  control  of  the  Balkans  that 
she  has  been  consolidating  during  the  last  two  years. 
Bulgaria  is  acquired  to  German  interests  by  the  bribe 
of  the  Serbian  territory  in  Macedonia  that  she  covets, 
by  the  alluring  prospect  of  holding  the  hegemony 
over  the  whole  Balkans  under  German  auspices,  and 
by  the  personal  influence  of  her  crafty  German  king. 
Turkey  is  an  invertebrate  nation,  with  no  such  insti- 
tution as  public  opinion,  and  the  despotic  clique  that 
rules  it  is  absolutely  in  the  grip  of  Germany. 
Through  them  the  Germans  have  drawn  into  their 
hands  all  the  machinery  of  government. 

This  state  of  affairs  in  the  Balkans  will  last  for  so 
long  a  time  as  Germany  is  unbeaten  in  the  major 
theatres  of  war.  But  when  it  becomes  evident,  as 
sooner  or  later  it  must,  that  the  German  colossus  is 
cracking,  these  vassal-states  will  begin  to  see  that 
their  safety  lies  in  getting  out  before  the  final  col- 
lapse comes.  The  rats  will  look  for  a  way  out  of  the 
sinking  ship. 

At  that  moment  the  existence  of  a  powerful  Allied 
Army  on  the  spot  in  the  Balkans  will  be  of  great 
value.  It  will  apply  the  external  pressure  that  will 
hasten  the  internal  crumbling;  it  will  be  ready  to 
widen  the  fissure,  to  spring  into  the  gap  between 
Germany  and  her  Near  Eastern  allies  and  apply  lever- 
age to  enlarge  it. 

We  have  got  to  beat  the  Germans  in  the  West,  but 
we  must  also  be  ready  to  seize  instantly  upon  the 
first-fruits  of  that  victory  in  other  fields,  when  they 
begin  to  appear  in  the  form  of  wilting  on  the  part  of 


HAS  SALONICA  BEEN  WORTH  WHILE?          13 

the  Bulgars  or  Turks.  For  though  we  win  in  the 
West  we  shall  nevertheless  lose  the  war  for  practical 
purposes  unless  we  also  stamp  the  Germans  out  of 
the  Balkans.  The  greater  must  precede  the  less. 
Victory  in  the  Balkans  will  come  as  consequence 
and  corollary  of  victory  in  France,  but  only  if  we 
are  ready  to  seize  with  both  hands  upon  the  first 
signs  of  enemy  enfeeblement.  By  so  doing,  too,  we 
may  be  able  to  set  up  a  reciprocal  process  of  dismem- 
berment that  will  react  effectively  upon  the  break-up 
<}f  the  German  military  power  in  the  West,  and  so 
fasten  the  realisation  of  both  the  major  and  the  minor 
victory. 

It  will  be  the  function  of  the  Allied  Army  in  the 
Balkans  always  to  hold  itself  ready  for  that  vital 
opportunity. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  FIRST  FIGHTING  AND  THE 
FRENCH  PUSH  INTO  SERBIA 

SEPTEMBER  30,  1915,  may  be  regarded  as  the 
day  when  the  Salonica  Expedition  took  its  place 
among  the  war  plans  of  the  Allies. 
During  the  two  previous  months  the  military  situa- 
tion in  the  Near  East  had  been  forcing  itself  more 
and  more  urgently  upon  the  attention  of  the  French 
and  English  Governments.  At  the  Dardanelles  the 
fierce  fighting  of  the  summer  had  only  emphasised 
the  deadlock  in  which  the  Allied  Forces  were  in- 
volved. In  the  Balkans  it  became  clear  as  the  au- 
tumn drew  on  that  Austria  was  about  to  carry  out  an 
attack  in  overwhelming  force  upon  the  Serbians,  who 
were  already  worn  with  much  fighting,  and  reduced 
in  numbers  by  disease.  Bulgaria's  deceitful  neu- 
trality was  wearing  thin,  in  spite  of  the  well-meant 
but  lamentably  misinformed  assurances  of  her  friends 
in  England  that  she  would  never  forget  the  gratitude 
due  to  her  traditional  friends,  the  English,  and  would 
never  ally  herself  against  her  kinsmen,  the  Russians. 
For  all  the  bluffing  interviews  given  by  M.  Rado- 
slavoff  to  the  "  Temps,"  it  was  constantly  growing 
more  sure  that  the  Bulgar's  hatred  of  the  Serb,  and 
his  resentment  at  the  loss  of  the  spoils  of  the  first 
Balkan  War  which  he  had  suffered  by  the  Treaty  of 
Bucharest,  would  finally  bring  him  to  league  himself 

14 


THE  FIRST  FIGHTING  15 

with  the  Central  Empires,  to  which  his  crafty  and 
influential  monarch  by  family  and  financial  interest 
belonged. 

When  Bulgaria,  on  September  10,  1915,  at  length 
ordered  a  general  mobilisation,  Serbia  found  herself 
threatened  by  imminent  invasion  from  two  sides  of 
her  kingdom. 

Meanwhile  the  Balkan  Expedition  was  shaping  in 
Paris.  M.  Millerand,  Minister  of  War,  sent  for  Gen- 
eral Sarrail,  who  on  July  22nd  had  returned  to  the 
capital  from  his  command  at  Verdun,  and  asked  him 
to  submit  a  report  on  possible  expeditions  wjhioh 
might  be  undertaken  in  the  Near  East.  He  was  to 
adopt  as  basis  for  his  investigation  the  supposition, 
first,  that  the  troops  available  would  be  limited  to 
General  Bailloud's  French  Division  from  the  Dar- 
danelles reinforced  by  a  brigade  from  France;  and 
secondly,  he  was  to  report  what  might  further  be 
accomplished  with  larger  effectives,  and  what  strength 
would  be  necessary  to  achieve  more  important  ends. 

During  that  late  summer  of  1915,  then,  when  uneasi- 
ness was  gradually  spreading,  both  in  England  and 
in  France,  as  to  our  situation  in  the  Near  East,  when 
the  heavy  losses,  the  inability  to  advance,  and  the  ap- 
pearance of  enemy  submarines  to  threaten  our  com- 
munications at  the  Dardanelles  were  making  it  clearer 
every  day  that  it  was  beyond  our  strength  to  force  a 
way  through  to  Constantinople,  when  Germany  was 
clearly  preparing  for  a  powerful  thrust  southwards  in 
the  Balkans,  to  gain  control  of  the  railway  line  that 
would  give  her  through  communication  with  Constan- 
tinople, and  still  more  imperil  our  situation  in  the 
Gallipoli  Peninsula,  General  Sarrail,  on  whom  the 


16          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

responsibility  for  the  chief  command  of  the  Allies  in 
the  Balkans  has  rested  for  the  last  two  years,  was 
sitting  shut  up  in  his  room  in  Paris,  like  a  student 
preparing  for  an  examination,  in  front  of  a  large 
table  covered  with  Staff  maps,  studying  the  possibili- 
ties of  new  diversions  that  might  be  made  in  the 
Levant.  There  were  several  schemes  that  he  had  to 
investigate;  they  were  being  much  discussed  unoffi- 
cially at  the  time,  and  each  of  them  had  its  partisans. 
Of  these  the  plan  of  landing  at  Salonica  found  the 
most  general  favour  because : 

(1)  There  was  a  good  harbour  there. 

(2)  There  were  railways  running  up-country. 

(3)  The  town  disposed  of  a  certain  amount  of 
modern  resources. 

(4)  An  expeditionary   force   based   on   Salonica 
could  be  used  either  to  supplant  or  to  supplement  the 
operations  at  the  Dardanelles. 

(5)  At  this  time  (summer,  1915),  the  Greek  Gov- 
ernment under  M.  Venizelos  was  thoroughly  pro- 
Ally,  and,  had  the  King  not  acted  unconstitutionally 
later  in  driving  him  from  office,  there  would  have  been 
a  good  chance  of  the  Greek  Army  coming  in  with  us. 

But  before  the  report  which  General  Sarrail  sub- 
mitted could  be  studied  by  the  French  Government, 
the  quick  march  of  events  in  the  Balkans  imposed  an 
immediate  decision.  On  September  29th,  the  Bui- 
gars,  without  declaring  war,  attacked  the  Serbian 
frontier  at  Cadibogaz.  For  a  week  the  Serbs  had 
already  been  falling  back  from  the  Danube  in  the 
face  of  invading  Austro-German  forces  half  as  strong 
again  as  themselves.  If  Serbia  was  to  be  saved  from 
complete  annihilation,  Allied  reinforcements  must  be 


THE  FIRST  FIGHTING  17 

sent  to  her  at  once.  Strategical  considerations  made 
it  urgent  that  anything  possible  should,  in  fact,  be 
done  to  prevent  a  successful  German  invasion  of 
Serbia.  For  this  would  make  the  dream  of  "  Middle 
Europe  "  a  temporary  reality,  would  consolidate  and 
immensely  strengthen  the  situation  of  the  Central 
Powers  and  their  relations  with  their  Allies,  and 
would  put  Berlin  in  three-day  railway  communica- 
tion with  Constantinople,  opening  up  to  Germany  the 
granary  of  Asia  Minor,  and  enabling  trainloads  of 
shells  to  reach  the  Turkish  capital  without  breaking 
bulk  between  an  Essen  factory-yard  and  the  S irked ji 
railway  station  by  the  Golden  Horn.  Public  opinion, 
too,  both  in  France  and  England  eagerly  desired  that 
something  should  be  done  to  help  Serbia.  The  idea 
that  a  little  nation  which  had  fought  so  gallantly 
should  now  be  abandoned  to  an  overwhelming  invasion 
without  an  effort  being  made  to  save  her,  was  repug- 
nant to  the  chivalrous  feelings  of  the  French  and  Eng- 
lish nations.  The  French  Press,  especially,  was  urgent 
with  demands  that  400,000  men  should  be  sent  "  at 
once  "  to  the  Balkans.  The  publicists  who  agitated 
for  these  energetic  measures  had  not,  however,  paused 
to  calculate  the  time  necessary  to  concentrate  such  a 
number  of  troops,  to  organise  their  despatch,  and 
above  all  to  arrange  sea-transport  for  them.  The 
matter-of-fact  truth  is  that  at  the  end  of  September, 
1915,  when  this  Balkan  campaign  was  undertaken,  it 
was  already  too  late  to  bring  effective  help  to  our 
Serbian  Allies  at  the  other  end  of  Europe.  The  condi- 
tions were  not  equal.  The  invaders  of  Serbia  had  the 
whole  of  the  resources  of  their  highly  organised  indus- 
trial countries  at  a  distance  of  only  a  few  hours  by 


18          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

train  behind  them,  and  they  were  already  on  the  spot ; 
while  it  remained  for  us,  first  to  organise,  and  then 
to  despatch  an  expedition  which  would  have  to  be  con- 
veyed and  supplied  over  thousands  of  miles  of  railway 
and  sea. 

But  at  the  beginning  of  October  the  decision  to 
launch  the  Balkan  campaign  had  been  reached;  the 
Allies  had  been  in  negotiation  with  M.  Venizelos,  the 
Greek  Premier,  about  landing  at  Salonica;  the  assent 
of  the  Greek  Government  had  been  obtained;  and 
although  Venizelos  himself,  through  the  opposition  of 
the  King,  was  shortly  afterwards  driven  from  office, 
and  the  co-operation  of  the  Greek  Army  which  had 
once  been  hoped  for  was  no  longer  in  sight,  the  ar- 
rangement held  good.  The  wheels  that  such  resolu- 
tions set  in  motion  are  too  complicated  to  be  lightly 
stopped. 

Speediness  in  the  arrival  of  our  troops  in  the  Bal- 
kans was  of  the  first  importance.  General  Bailloud's 
French  Division  from  Cape  Helles,  and  the  10th 
Division  under  General  Sir  Bryan  Mahon  from  Suvla, 
were  accordingly  hurried  over  from  the  Dardanelles, 
and  their  first  detachments  landed  at  Salonica  on  Oc- 
tober 5th.  Other  forces  were  to  follow  immediately 
from  France.  General  Sarrail  left  on  October  7th  for 
Salonica,  where  he  arrived  on  October  12th,  but  the 
haste  with  which  this  expedition  for  the  rescue  of 
Serbia  had  necessarily  been  organised  was  evident 
from  the  first.  Twice  during  General  Sarrail's  voy- 
age from  Paris  to  Salonica  his  instructions  as  to  the 
plan  of  campaign  to  be  followed  were  changed.  At 
the  moment  of  his  arrival  the  decision  stood  that  the 
French  forces  were  to  remain  concentrated  at  Sa- 


THE  FIRST  FIGHTING  19 

lonica,  but,  forty-eight  hours  later,  under  the  pressure 
of  events,  and  in  response  to  telegraphic  reports  and 
proposals  received  from  General  Sarrail  himself,  this 
scheme  was  altered,  and  permission  was  given  to  the 
French  Commander  to  make  an  effort,  desperate  al- 
though the  situation  in  Serbia  by  this  time  was,  to 
push  up  the  Vardar,  and  try  to  join  hands  with  the 
Serbian  Army  where  it  stood  at  bay. 

The  troops  now  at  Salonica  available  for  this  opera- 
tion were: 

General  Bailloud's  Division  (the  156th). 

The  113th  Brigade  from  France. 

The  10th  English  Division  from  the  Dardanelles. 
Two  more  French  Divisions,  (the  57th,  formed  of  the 
113th  Brigade  and  another  which  arrived,  and  the 
122nd,  from  France),  landed  shortly  afterwards  in 
time  to  follow  up-country  and  play  their  part  in  the 
operations  in  Serbia. 

The  10th  English  Division  had  come  with  orders 
from  the  British  Government  to  establish  itself  for 
the  winter  in  Salonica  and  not  to  cross  the  Greek 
frontier  unless  this  was  violated,  but  on  the  decision 
being  reached  that  the  French  should  push  up  into 
Serbia,  General  Mahon  received  authorisation  from 
London  to  advance  the  10th  Division  as  far  as  Lake 
Doiran,  just  across  the  Greek  frontier.  Here  he  re- 
lieved the  French  who  were  holding  the  right  wing  of 
the  Allied  front,  and  protected  the  line  of  communica- 
tions of  the  main  French  force  which  had  been  pushed 
on  and  become  engaged  with  the  enemy  eighty  miles 
up  the  Vardar  from  Salonica.  A  suggestion  that  the 
English  troops  should  instead  proceed  to  the  support 
of  the  Serbs  in  the  Babouna  pass,  by  way  of  Monastir, 


£0          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

was  held  to  be  too  hazardous  and  far-distant  an  opera- 
tion to  be  practicable.  In  addition  the  idea  was 
opposed  by  the  Greeks,  who  were  already  obstructing 
us  as  much  as  possible. 

The  principles  upon  which  the  French  Government 
had  decided  on  the  advance  of  its  troops  into  Serbia 
were  those  of  demonstrating  to  the  Serbs,  now  in 
desperate  straits,  that  the  Allied  Powers  had  not 
deserted  them,  and  also  of  contributing  some  material 
help,  however  slight,  to  their  outnumbered  army.  As 
regards  the  latter  aim  there  were  two  ways  in  which 
this  might  be  effected.  The  French  troops  might  have 
been  rushed  up  the  railway  to  Nish  directly  each  de- 
tachment of  them  arrived.  This  was  the  desire  of  the 
Serbian  Government,  and  it  was  awaited  by  them  with 
such  confidence  that  the  town  of  Nish  in  the  second 
week  of  October  was  beflagged  in  expectation  of  the 
immediate  arrival  of  the  Allied  reinforcements.  Or, 
secondly,  General  Sarrail  might  have  contented  him- 
self with  occupying  the  Vardar  valley  so  as  to  protect 
Serbia's  sole  line  of  communications  with  the  outside 
world.  The  considerations  which  governed  the  choice 
between  these  alternatives  were,  first,  the  time  avail- 
able to  the  Allies,  and  second,  the  strength  of  the 
forces  at  their  disposal.  Of  these,  the  first  was  so 
short,  and  the  second  so  limited,  that  General  Sarrail 
decided  for  the  latter  scheme, — an  advance  up  the 
Vardar  valley  to  secure  the  railway  line,  and  to 
threaten  the  flank  of  the  invading  Bulgars. 

The  reasons  against  hurrying  the  French  troops 
right  up  the  railway  to  Nish,  nearly  200  miles  distant 
from  Salonica,  were  several.  First  of  all,  the  result 
would  simply  have  been  that  the  French  divisions 


THE  FIRST  FIGHTING  21 

would  have  been  engaged  battalion  by  battalion  as 
they  arrived  at  Nish.  Their  strength  was  not  suffi- 
cient for  them  to  have  made  any  considerable  differ- 
ence to  the  general  situation,  and  in  consequence  of 
such  action  General  Sarrail,  instead  of  having  under 
his  own  hand  the  force  with  the  command  of  which 
the  French  Government  had  entrusted  him,  would 
have  been  obliged  to  transfer  the  practical  authority 
over  his  troops  to  Serbian  General  Headquarters. 
The  French  Army  would  furthermore  inevitably  have 
become  involved  in  the  disastrous  Serbian  retreat 
across  Albania  which  followed.  Moreover,  by  this 
time  the  very  evident  hostility  of  the  Greek  Govern- 
ment and  the  pro-German  attitude  of  King  Constan- 
tine  made  it  necessary  to  take  special  heed  of  the 
safety  of  our  lines  of  communication,  and  even  of  our 
base  at  Salonica.  We  were  surrounded  on  all  sides 
by  the  Greek  Army  on  a  war  footing.  Many  of  its 
officers  openly  showed  preference  for  our  enemies,  and 
we  had  always  to  bear  in  mind  the  possibility  of  a 
sudden  and  treacherous  attack  upon  our  rear. 

On  October  14th,  then,  the  French  advance  north- 
wards up  the  Vardar  began,  with  the  limited  objects  of 
securing  the  railway,  with  the  defiles  and  tunnels 
through  which  it  passes,  and  of  joining  hands  with  the 
Serbs,  if  the  developments  of  their  retreat  should  be 
such  as  to  make  that  possible.  On  October  19th,  Gen- 
eral Bailloud  established  his  headquarters  at  Strum- 
nitza  Station,  and  during  the  following  week  his 
division  began  to  drive  the  Bulgars  back  in  the  hilly 
region  to  the  east  of  the  line  towards  the  Bulgarian 
frontier.  The  French  occupied  Tatarli,  Kalkali,  and 
the  ridge  to  the  north  of  these  villages,  thus  securing 


22          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

a  position  which  our  10th  Division  later  took  over  from 
them.  On  October  26th  the  first  detachments  of  this 
English  division  began,  indeed,  to  arrive  on  the  sector 
between  Dedeli  and  Lake  Doiran. 

During  the  first  fortnight  in  November  the  French 
continued  to  be  fairly  actively  engaged  with  the  Bui- 
gars  in  the  right  angle  formed  by  the  road  running 
from  Strumnitza  Station  to  Strumnitza  town, — the 
two  places  being  separated  by  a  distance  of  twelve 
miles  of  mountain  as  the  crow  flies.  In  this  sector,  on 
November  llth,  they  took  Hill  517,  on  which  stands 
the  village  of  Islaz,  by  a  frontal  infantry  attack  in 
three  waves  which  carried  two  Bulgar  positions  in  one 
rush. 

So  much  for  the  right  wing  of  our  forces  now  es- 
tablished in  as  advanced  a  position  as  it  was  ever  to 
reach.  Meanwhile  the  left  and  more  mobile  wing  of 
the  Allied  Army  in  the  Balkans  had  pushed  further 
north.  Their  advance  up  the  railway  line  was  made 
by  successive  stages,  the  first  point  north  of  Strum- 
nitza Station  that  was  occupied  being  the  ravine  of 
Demir  Kapu.  This  was  a  most  important  place  to 
secure,  for  here  the  railway  and  river  are  penned  up 
together  in  a  narrow  gorge  ten  miles  long,  which  acts 
as  the  neck  of  a  bottle,  restricting  the  main  route  of 
ingress  into  Southern  Macedonia  from  the  north.  The 
entrance  to  this  ten-mile  corridor  is  a  narrow  gap  just 
wide  enough  for  the  brown,  swirling  river  to  pass 
between  perpendicular  walls  of  rock,  600  feet  high. 
The  railway  only  gets  through  by  tunnelling  into  the 
mountain  alongside. 

The  Demir  Kapu  defile  was,  in  fact,  seized  only 
just  in  time,  for  the  Bulgars  were  already  advancing 


THE  FIRST  FIGHTING  23 

to  the  river  from  the  east.  So  quickly  did  they  come 
on,  in  hot  pursuit  of  some  Serbian  frontier-guards, 
that  they  ran  quite  unexpectedly  into  some  French 
outposts  thrown  out  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river.  The 
enemy  was  unable  to  establish  a  fixed  position,  how- 
ever, to  threaten  the  defile,  and  could  only  shell  it 
irregularly  with  small  mountain  guns. 

The  next  stage  of  Sarrail's  up-river  advance  was  to 
the  town  of  Krivolak,  which  stands  on  the  Vardar, 
twenty  miles  south-east  of  Veles,  otherwise  called 
Kuprulu.  The  first  French  brigade  arrived  at  Krivo- 
lak on  October  20th. 

Up  to  this  date  it  had  been  General  Sarrail's  inten- 
tion to  go  on  to  Veles,  where  the  Serbian  General 
Vasitch  held  out,  though  almost  surrounded,  until 
October  28th.  The  junction  between  the  French  and 
the  Serbs  at  Veles,  if  it  could  have  been  brought  about, 
as  it  might  have  been  had  the  Allies  landed  in  Salonica 
a  fortnight  earlier,  would  have  changed  the  whole  fate 
of  the  Serbian  Army.  Not  only  would  it  have  secured 
to  them  a  line  of  supply  by  rail  from  Salonica  and  the 
sea,  but  it  would  have  kept  open  an  avenue  of  retreat 
down  which  they  might  have  fallen  back  without 
undue  hardship  onto  our  new  Allied  base,  instead  of 
being  obliged,  as  they  eventually  were,  to  undertake 
that  terrible  and  costly  march  across  the  pathless 
mountains  of  Albania  through  mid-winter  snows. 

But  the  lateness  of  the  arrival  of  the  Allied  troops  in 
the  Balkans  had  laid  a  blight  upon  this  scheme  which 
withered  it  utterly.  Uskub  had  been  taken  on 
October  9th,  after  heavy  fighting.  Veles  fell  on  the 
28th.  The  cutting  of  the  railway  at  these  points, 
which  severed  the  Serbian  Government  at  Nish  and 


24          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

the  Serbian  Armies  in  the  valleys  of  the  Southern  and 
Western  Morava,  at  Tetovo,  and  in  the  Babouna  pass, 
from  all  communication  with  the  south,  was  the  first 
great  achievement  of  the  Bulgarian  invasion.  It  drove 
a  wedge  between  the  Serbians  retiring  southwest- 
wards  and  the  French  advancing  northwards  up  the 
Vardar  to  their  succour.  Was  it  still  possible,  in  spite 
of  the  enemy  forces  thus  thrust  between  them,  for 
the  junction  between  these  two  Allied  Armies  to  be 
effected  by  fighting?  Two  attempts  were  made  to 
accomplish  this.  Each  was  a  forlorn  hope,  and  neither 
met  with  success. 

To  begin  with,  it  was  clear  that  the  French  forces 
advancing  up  the  Vardar  were  nothing  like  strong 
enough  to  retake  Veles  so  as  to  join  the  Serbians 
there.  The  possibilities  of  the  limited  number  of 
troops  which  the  French  possessed  were  in  fact  ex- 
hausted. Two  French  divisions  had  reached  Krivo- 
lak,— the  57th  and  the  122nd.  The  third  French 
division,  the  156th,  was  back  down  the  Vardar  at 
Strumnitza,  engaged,  together  with  the  English,  in 
ensuring  the  long  line  of  communications  of  this  small 
force.  The  idea  of  advancing  from  Krivolak  upon  the 
Bulgars  at  Veles  was  not  to  be  thought  of.  It  would 
have  been  to  run  upon  sure  disaster. 

But  if  the  French  could  not  retake  Veles  from 
the  Bulgars,  could  the  Serbs  do  it? 

The  Serbs  tried  to  in  the  first  week  of  November. 
This  attempt  is  known  as  "  The  manoeuvre  of  Kat- 
chanik."  It  failed.  To  understand  it  without  going 
into  too  complicated  detail,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  under  the  converging  pressure  of  the  Austrians 
and  Bulgarians,  the  Serbian  Army  had  now  fallen 


THE  FIRST  FIGHTING  25 

back  into  the  region  west  of  Uskub,  which,  together 
with  Veles,  as  has  been  said,  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
enemy. 

This  being  the  situation,  it  was  clear  that  the  only 
way  for  the  Serbs  to  force  their  way  through  to  join 
the  Allies  was  to  abandon  Old  Serbia  and  then,  con- 
centrating in  the  plain  of  Kossovo,  to  try  to  break 
through  the  enemy  forces  now  posted  from  Katchanik 
along  the  Karadagh  to  Konculj,  so  as  to  reach  Uskub 
and  Veles  behind  them.  To  do  this  as  many  troops 
as  possible  were  withdrawn  from  the  north,  those  in 
the  valleys  of  the  Southern  and  Western  Morava  be- 
ing the  first  to  be  recalled.  This  retirement,  though 
harassed  by  energetic  presure  of  the  enemy  from  the 
north  and  from  the  direction  of  Leskovec  to  the  east, 
was  rapidly  and  safely  carried  out,  and  on  November 
4th  the  push  for  Uskub  began. 

For  this  forlorn  hope  of  an  offensive  the  Serbs 
disposed  of  five  infantry  divisions,  one  cavalry  division 
and  two  strong  "  detachments,"  but  they  were  much 
outnumbered  by  the  Bulgars  facing  them.  The  latter, 
threatened  by  this  attack  on  their  flank,  delayed  their 
advance  towards  Monastir  down  the  Babouna  pass, — 
where  for  a  month  past  5,000  Serbs,  with  practically 
no  guns  and  little  food,  had  been  holding  up  four  times 
their  number  of  the  enemy, — and  troops  were  even 
called  back  up  the  Babouna  to  meet  the  attack  on 
Katchanik. 

From  November  4th-8th,  in  the  battle  of  Katchanik, 
the  Serbs  were  attacking  the  enemy  on  Velika  Planina 
and  Mount  Jegovatz,  the  crest  of  which  they  captured. 
But  their  troops  were  tired  out,  they  were  short  of 
mountain  guns  and  the  enemy  was  pressing  from  the 


26          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

north  towards  Prepolatz  and  Prishtina.  It  became 
clear  that  there  would  not  be  time  to  force  a  way 
through  to  Uskub  before  the  communication  of  the 
troops  at  Katchanik  broke  down.  So  on  November 
8th  the  attack  was  called  off,  and  the  wearied  Serbian 
Army,  with  its  artillery  ammunition  exhausted,  was 
withdrawn  to  the  left  bank  of  the  Sitnitza  river,  and 
there  on  November  12th  the  order  was  finally  given 
for  that  ghastly  retreat  to  begin  across  the  bitter  and 
inhospitable  mountains  of  Albania,  which,  for  the  time 
at  any  rate,  was  the  end  of  the  Serbian  Army. 

But  though  neither  French  nor  Serbs  were  strong 
enough  to  break  through  and  make  a  junction  at  Veles 
or  Uskub  there  still  remained  another  possibility. 
At  the  end  of  October  when  the  French  reached 
Krivolak  there  was  still  that  small  Serbian  force  in  the 
narrow  and  steep  defile  of  the  Babouna  pass  along 
which  the  road  from  Veles  runs  to  Monastir.  The 
flank  of  this  Serbian  force  was,  indeed,  threatened 
by  a  flying  column  of  the  Bulgars  which  was  working 
round  to  turn  its  position  by  means  of  a  pony  track 
across  the  mountains  to  the  north,  and  in  the  end  did 
oblige  it  to  retreat. 

But  on  October  20th  when  the  French  reached 
Krivolak,  there  still  appeared  to  the  energetic  mind 
of  General  Sarrail  to  be  a  chance  worth  attempting 
of  striking  westwards  across  country  from  the  Var- 
dar  and  attacking  the  left  flank  of  the  Bulgar  force 
advancing  from  Veles  on  Monastir  in  the  hope  of 
getting  into  touch  with  the  detachment  of  the  Serbian 
Army  which  was  resisting  in  the  Babouna  pass.  It 
was  a  daring  scheme, — almost  reckless  perhaps  from  a 
strategic  point  of  view, — that  this  weak  force  of  two 


THE  FIRST  FIGHTING  27 

divisions  with  its  long  and  most  precarious  line  of 
communications  should  engage  itself  with  a  much 
more  numerous  and  victoriously  advancing  enemy, 
and  General  Sarrail  was  constantly  being  cautioned 
by  the  French  Government  not  only  of  his  danger  of 
being  cut  off  and  surrounded  by  the  Bulgars,  but  also 
of  the  vaguer,  and  consequently  even  more  disturbing, 
possibility  of  being  attacked  from  the  rear  by  the 
Greeks,  who  controlled  the  first  fifty  miles  of  his  rail- 
way communications,  and  were  by  this  time  so 
frankly  unfriendly  that  Sarrail  was  driven  to  the 
length  of  establishing  a  great  supply  depot  at  Guev- 
gheli,  just  across  the  Serbian  frontier,  for  no  other 
reason  than  that  he  could  not  be  certain  of  the  security 
of  his  base  area  further  south.  In  fact,  one  needs 
only  to  glance  at  the  map  to  realise  the  difficulty 
of  the  operation  which  the  French  now  began  to 
attempt.  From  their  railhead  at  Krivolak  on  the 
Vardar  bank  to  the  Babouna  pass  where  the  Serbs 
were  standing  on  the  defensive  is  a  distance  of  thirty 
miles  across  country,  but  that  distance  conveys  small 
idea  of  the  obstacles  with  which  it  was  filled.  After 
securing  the  railhead  at  Krivolak  by  establishing  a 
strong  outpost  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Vardar, 
the  French  troops  destined  to  attempt  the  junction 
with  the  Serbs  had  to  turn  their  backs  upon  the  rail- 
way and  march  by  the  single,  primitive,  up-and-down 
road  that  runs  south-westwards,  through  Negotin  and 
Kavadar,  to  where  the  long  wooden  bridge  of  Vozarci 
crossed  the  swift  and  deep  Cerna  river,  a  tributary 
stream  which  here  flows  north-eastwards  to  join  the 
Vardar.  The  road  of  their  advance  continued  for 
four  miles  further  beyond  the  Cerna,  up  the  valley  of 


28          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

the  Rajek,  a  mountain  torrent  that  falls  into  it;  then 
they  had  to  cross  the  Rajek  by  another  wooden  bridge 
and  turn  due  northward  along  the  left  bank  of  the 
Cerna,  where  they  climbed  up  into  the  outer  fringe  of 
the  mountains  that  form  the  eastern  wall  of  the  Ba- 
bouna  pass.  And  here  at  length  they  found  them- 
selves in  face  of  the  entrenched  positions  of  the  left 
wing  of  the  Bulgarian  Army  that  was  pushing  its 
way  down  the  road  from  Veles  to  Monastir. 

A  single-track  railway  a  hundred  miles  long, 
threatened  by  open  enemies  on  the  greater  part  of  its 
length  and  exposed  to  secret  enemies  on  the  rest,  fol- 
lowed by  eighteen  or  twenty  miles  of  a  bad  road  which 
included  two  wooden  bridges  across  formidable 
rivers, — such  was  their  sole  line  of  supply  and  their 
sole  line  of  retreat.  Under  these  conditions  was  the 
French  advance  westwards  from  the  Vardar  through 
Kavadar  begun. 

The  first  thing  for  the  French  to  do  after  their 
arrival  on  October  20th  at  Krivolak  was  to  cross  the 
river  and  secure  the  commanding  height  of  Kara- 
Hod  jali  on  the  other  side,  from  which,  if  the  enemy 
had  been  allowed  to  establish  artillery  there,  he  could 
have  shelled  the  whole  of  the  "  Kavadar  triangle," 
the  sort  of  peninsula  between  the  converging  Vardar 
and  Cerna  rivers  across  which  lay  the  line  of  advance 
towards  the  Babouna. 

No  sooner  did  General  Leblois,  commanding  the 
57th  Division,  arrive  at  Krivolak  on  October  27th, 
than  he  gave  orders  for  this  provision  of  Kara- 
Hod  jali  to  be  occupied  as  a  northerly  bastion  to  the 
new  French  area  of  operations  on  the  right  bank  of 
the  Vardar.  There  is  no  bridge  across  the  river 


[Official  Photograph. 


THE  WAY  TO  SOFIA ACROSS  PATHLESS   MOUNTAINS. 


THE  FIRST  FIGHTING  29' 

here,  and  the  Vardar,  always  a  swift  stream,  was 
carrying  a  strong  head  of  flood-water,  but  there  was 
time  for  no  delay,  since  already  Bulgar  cavalry  scouts 
had  been  seen  dotting  the  crest  of  the  black,  forbid- 
ding mountain.  So  a  leaky  Turkish  fishing-punt 
was  found,  and  a  whole  French  regiment  with  a 
mountain-battery  were  taken  across  in  it,  a  dozen  at  a 
time,  the  crazy  ferry-boat  never  ceasing  its  journeys 
for  a  day  and  a  night.  Meanwhile  a  company  of 
Irish  pioneers  was  brought  up  from  Salonica  to  build 
a  floating  bridge. 

But  the  Bulgar  General  realised,  though  late,  the 
importance  of  Kara-Hod jali  as  a  menace  to  the  new 
French  position  south  of  Krivolak,  and  on  October 
30th  he  attacked  it  in  force,  supported  by  5-inch 
guns.  The  attack  was  beaten  off  with  heavy  loss, 
though  the  Bulgarian  infantry  got  close  enough  to 
the  French  trenches  for  the  defenders  to  use  their 
hand  grenades.  On  November  2nd  and  3rd  renewed 
attempts  to  outflank  Kara-Hod  jali  were  repulsed, 
and  after  that  the  Bulgar s  contented  themselves  with 
digging  in  to  face  the  French.  Railhead  in  its  ex- 
posed position  at  Krivolak  was  never  safe  from  a  few 
shells  at  long  range,  but  was  protected  from  actual 
attack  so  long  as  the  French  continued  to  hold  Kara- 
Hod  jali,  or  Kara-Rosalie,  as  the  French  soldiers 
called  it,  giving  it  the  nickname  of  their  blood- 
reddened  bayonets  from  the  hand-to-hand  fighting 
that  took  place  there. 

It  was  a  mountain  even  less  attractive  than  the 
average  stony,  barren,  treeless  Macedonian  height, 
for  its  ravines  were  filled  with  skulls  and  bones  from 
the  last  Balkan  Wars, — whitened  relics  of  which  the 


30          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

story,  though  but  three  years  old,  was  already  lost 
except  in  the  archives  of  some  General  Staff, — a  grim 
reminder  of  the  ephemeral  motives  for  which  war 
demands  the  surrender  of  men's  lives. 

But  before  the  French  abandoned  Kara-Hod jali  a 
month  later  they  had  added  considerably  to  its  col- 
lection of  human  remains  by  the  Bulgarian  corpses 
they  scattered  on  its  slopes,  for  the  Bulgars  moved 
always  in  column  and  attacked  in  mass-formation,  as 
a  result  of  which  they  lost  heavily.  But  the  French 
also  had  meanwhile  the  opportunity  of  realising  the 
devastating  effects  of  their  own  75  mm.  guns,  since 
the  batteries  which  the  Bulgars  used  against  them 
were  some  which  they  had  bought  from  Creusot 
before  the  war.  The  enemy's  shells,  however, 
varied  much  in  quality,  Turkish  ammunition  and 
even  practice  shells  being  sometimes  used.  The  Bul- 
gars had  no  aeroplanes  at  this  time,  though  a  few 
German  machines  showed  themselves  over  the  French 
and  British  by  Strumnitza.  The  Bulgar  gunners, 
on  the  other  hand,  always  stopped  firing  when  an 
Allied  airman  appeared. 

Railhead  being  thus  secured,  the  main  body  of  the 
French  turned  westwards  to  attack  the  left  flank  and 
rear  of  the  Bulgars  operating  against  the  Babouna 
pass.  By  this  time  the  57th  Division  had  established 
its  headquarters  at  Negotin,  and  the  122nd  at 
Kavadar. 

A  dreary  place  was  this  "  Kavadar  triangle," — 
almost  treeless;  the  once  fertile  fields  deserted;  the 
rare  villages  in  ruins,  burnt  by  the  comitadji  bands 
which  used  to  ravage  the  Balkans  in  the  interests  of 
conflicting  national  propaganda.  The  wretched  popu- 


THE  FIRST  FIGHTING  31 

lation  was  the  usual  mixture  of  Bulgarian,  Serb  and 
Mussulman,  but  with  each  section  accustomed  to 
change  their  racial  and  religious  labels  under  the  ap- 
plication of  terrorism.  Order  was  kept  among  them 
with  a  strong  hand  by  an  ex-comitadji  named  Ba- 
bounski,  who  made  short  work  of  doubtful  characters, 
hanging  them  or  "  sending  them  down  to  Salonica," 
as  he  euphemistically  termed  it,  which  meant  a  sum- 
mary execution  on  the  banks  of  the  Vardar,  after 
which  the  body  was  thrown  into  the  stream.  Mud, 
filth,  half-wild  dogs  were  the  most  conspicuous 
features  of  the  countryside.  No  supplies  of  any  kind 
could  be  drawn  from  a  region  whose  resources  even 
in  the  way  of  fuel  were  limited  to  cakes  of  bullock- 
dung,  dried  by  being  stuck  onto  the  decaying  walls. 

On  November  5th  news  was  received  that  the 
Serbs  had  been  driven  back  halfway  down  the  Ba- 
bouna  pass  to  Mukos.  Time  pressed ;  that  same  day 
the  first  French  troops  were  ordered  to  cross  the 
Cerna,  and  make  a  strong  reconnaissance  of  the  slopes 
of  Mount  Archangel,  the  strongest  point  of  the  Bui- 
gars'  left  flank,  and  held  by  the  3rd  Macedonian 
Regiment  reinforced  by  the  49th  and  53rd  and  prob- 
ably by  one  other. 

For  the  next  fortnight,  there  was  constant  and 
desperate  fighting  along  a  front  of  ten  miles  on  the 
slopes  on  this  left  bank  of  the  Cerna.  The  dull  rum- 
ble of  the  Bulgarian  guns  shelling  the  Serbs  in  the 
Mukos  defile,  only  ten  miles  away  in  a  direct  line, 
came  rolling  through  the  mountains  to  the  ears  of  the 
French,  as  they  tramped  across  the  long  wooden 
trestle  bridge  over  the  Cerna  at  Vozarci.  The  whole 
question  was, — Could  the  French  fight  their  way 


32          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALON ICA  ARMY 

through  in  time  to  join  these  Serbs  before  the  latter, 
vastly  outnumbered,  were  driven  back  into  the  Prilep 
plain  behind  them  towards  Monastir?  The  hope  that 
this  might  be  done  proved  vain,  through  sheer  lack  of 
numbers  on  the  part  of  both  the  Allies.  But  not  for 
want  of  fierce  fighting  during  the  fortnight  from 
November  5th-19th.  One  French  regiment,  indeed, 
was  continuously  in  action  for  nine  days.  On  Novem- 
ber 10th  the  village  of  Cicevo,  on  the  slopes  of  Mount 
Archangel,  was  carried  with  a  rush  by  an  encircling 
attack  delivered  by  a  French  infantry  regiment. 
Battalion  by  battalion,  as  French  troops  arrived  up 
the  railway  line,  they  were  hurried  across  the  Kavadar 
triangle  to  the  other  bank  of  the  Cerna,  and  thrown 
into  the  fighting. 

On  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  the  conflict 
reached  its  greatest  violence.  Even  these  French 
divisions  coming  straight  from  the  Western  front 
had  never  heard  such  violent  rifle  and  artillery  fire  as 
during  those  two  sternly  contested  days.  As  for  the 
Bulgars,  prisoners  who  had  fought  in  the  last  two 
Balkan  Wars,  said  that  they  had  never  realised  before 
how  terrible  a  battle  could  be.  But  by  this  time  the 
offensive  had  passed  to  the  enemy.  The  French  had 
exhausted  their  strength,  they  had  failed  to  carry 
Mount  Archangel,  and  on  the  evening  of  the  13th 
the  Chasseurs  a  pied  evacuated  Cicevo,  which  they 
had  won. 

The  French,  though  unable  to  break  through  the 
Bulgars  to  join  the  Serbs,  nevertheless  proved 
formidable  in  defence.  At  one  point  the  Bulgars 
following  them  down  the  slopes  of  Mount  Archangel 
got  within  twenty  yards  of  the  trenches  held  by  the 


THE  FIRST  FIGHTING  S3 

Chasseurs.  Then  with  a  fierce  yell  and  cries  of  "  The 
knife ! "  they  rose  to  their  feet  to  charge.  But 
the  Chasseurs  had  made  steps  of  earth  ready  to  get 
quickly  over  their  parapet,  and  in  a  second  they,  too, 
were  out  of  their  trench,  and  rushing  forward  to  meet 
the  enemy  with  the  bayonet.  The  suddenness  of  this 
counter-movement  took  the  Bulgars  by  surprise;  they 
hesitated  an  instant,  then  broke  and  ran.  "  If  we  had 
only  had  one  fresh  brigade  then,"  sighed  an  officer  who 
was  there,  "  we  might  have  been  at  Veles  that  night." 

The  Bulgars  made  persistent  attempts  to  work 
round  the  left  flank  of  the  French  and  cut  them  off 
from  the  Vozarci  bridge.  If  they  had  succeeded  in 
this,  they  would  have  caught  in  a  trap  all  the  French 
troops  who  had  crossed  the  Cerna,  rolling  them  up 
against  the  unfordable  river  in  their  rear.  Failing 
in  these  attempts,  however,  their  attack  lost  much  of 
its  vigour,  and  they  seemed  content  with  having 
checked  the  French  push  towards  joining  the  Serbs. 
The  French  losses  were  not  very  great,  though  the 
proportion  of  officer  casualties  was  high,  but  the  Bul- 
gars left  3,500  dead  on  the  ground  after  the  fighting 
on  Mount  Archangel  alone. 

The  French  were  hopelessly  outnumbered,  the 
Bulgars  having  a  superiority  of  five  to  two.  By  the 
end  of  the  second  week  of  November,  two  and  a  half 
Bulgarian  divisions  were  facing  the  two  weak  French 
divisions  on  the  Cerna  front,  and  a  Bulgar  division 
counts  no  less  than  25,000  men.  It  was  believed,  in 
fact,  that  the  whole  of  the  Bulgarian  First  Army, 
about  125,000  men,  was  spread  along  the  Veles- 
Prilep  road,  and  available  to  be  used  against  the 
25,000  French  on  the  Cerna,  and  the  5,000  Serbs  who 


34          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

were  gradually  being  pushed  down  the  Babouna  pass. 

So  the  attempt  to  join  the  Serbs  had  failed;  it  had 
broken  against  the  Bulgar  positions  on  Mount  Arch- 
angel. All  that  was  now  left  to  do  was  to  retreat 
upon  Salonica,  leaving  the  Serbs  to  their  fate.  For 
the  French  to  stay  where  they  were,  at  the  end  of  so 
difficult  a  line  of  communications,  threatened  by  the 
Bulgars,  and  seeming  very  likely  also  to  be  attacked 
by  the  Greeks,  was  clearly  impossible.  Indeed,  it 
looked  by  no  means  sure  in  the  third  week  of  Novem- 
ber that  the  French  would  be  able  to  extricate  them- 
selves from  their  contact  with  the  enemy  by  the  one 
difficult  route  open  to  them  without  considerable  loss. 

It  was  impossible  to  withdraw  troops,  ammunition 
and  material  in  a  single  movement.  If  that  had  been 
attempted,  the  enemy  would  have  followed  up  and 
forced  the  French  to  stand  and  fight  on  ground  not 
of  their  own  choosing.  The  retirement  was  accord- 
ingly carried  out  by  stages.  An  appearance  of 
activity  was  kept  up  at  the  front,  while  a  series  of 
strong  entrenched  positions  was  prepared  at  inter- 
vals down  the  Vardar.  Each  of  these  "  bridgeheads," 
as  they  are  technically  called,  was  held  and  defended 
by  a  section  of  the  French  force,  while  the  rest  were 
being  withdrawn  to  the  shelter  of  the  next  one.  It 
was  a  retreat  by  echelon.  These  defensive  positions, 
thus  held  in  turn  to  guard  the  rear  of  the  retreating 
army,  were: — 

(1)  Defile  of  Demir  Kapu. 

(2)  The  heights  of  Gradec. 

(3)  Bojimia  river — Mirovca. 

(4)  Near  Guevgheli. 

(5)  Smol,  (north-west  of  Ardzan  Lake), 


THE  FIRST  FIGHTING  35 

The  force  which  General  Sarrail  had  to  bring  out 
of  Serbia  in  this  difficult  manner  was  two  divisions 
strong.  It  must  be  remembered  how  awkwardly  the 
French  troops  on  the  Cerna  were  situated  with  re- 
gard to  getting  back  to  their  railhead  at  Krivolak. 
This  has  already  been  explained.  And  when  that 
was  accomplished,  even  worse  lay  ahead.  From 
Krivolak  down  to  Salonica  there  was  no  road  possible 
for  wheeled  traffic  at  all.  The  only  means  of  com- 
munication was  the  single  line  of  railway,  and  a  few 
extremely  bad,  very  steep  and  rough  tracks  which 
could  be  used  by  men  on  foot  and  by  pack-animals 
only.  To  add  to  these  difficulties,  it  was  now  bit- 
terly cold,  with  20°  of  frost,  and  the  snow  lying  thick. 

The  first  thing  to  be  done  was  to  evacuate  the  large 
depot  of  supplies  and  munitions  which  had  been  built 
up  at  Krivolak.  There  had  been  accumulated  here, 
in  view  of  the  possibility  of  joining  up  with  the  Serbs, 
eight  days'  supply  of  food  for  the  two  divisions  and 
1,000  rounds  per  gun.  To  facilitate  the  feeding  of 
the  Army,  Gradsko,  the  next  station  north  of  Krivo- 
lak, had  also  by  this  time  been  occupied,  but  on  the 
approach  of  the  Bulgars  was  evacuated,  because  its 
retention  was  not  considered  worth  the  casualties  that 
its  defence  would  have  entailed.  Owing  to  the  ab- 
sence of  roads,  all  the  carts,  motor-lorries  and  other 
material,  wheeled  and  stationary,  used  in  the  Kavadar 
triangle,  had  to  be  brought  down  from  Krivolak  by 
train.  When  this  had  been  done,  and  the  prepared 
defensive  position  at  Demir  Kapu  had  been  occu- 
pied by  troops  drawn  from  the  156th  Division  at 
Strumnitza,  the  retirement  of  the  troops  fighting  the 
Bulgars  beyond  the  Cerna  could  begin.  By  Novem- 


56          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALOXICA  ABMY 

ber  29th  they  were  all  back  on  the  right  hank  of  that 
river,  blowing  up  the  bridge  at  Vozarci  behind  them. 
All  that  day  the  artillery  continued  a  violent  bom- 
bardment of  the  Bulgar  positions  in  the  hills  beyond 
the  Cerna,  and  during  the  night  f ollowmg  the  whole 
French  force  fell  back  on  Krivolak  and  entrained, 
leaving  only  small  rearguards  which  f oDowed  as  soon 
as  the  Krivolak  railhead  was  cleared.  This  first 
stage  of  the  retreat  was  carried  out  with  a  loss  of  only 
about  twenty  men.  The  Bulgars  were  slow,  as  they 
usually  are,  in  grasping  the  new  situation,  and  the 
whole  of  the  two  divisions  got  safely  back  behind  the 
fortified  position  of  Demir  Kapu.  But  when  the 
Bulgars  did  come  on,  they  followed  up  the  retirement 
with  stubborn  persistency.  I  had  a  good  account  of 
their  advance  about  six  weeks  later  from  a  Bulgarian 
corporal  born  of  Armenian  parents  at  Rustchuk, 
who  deserted  later.  He  had  been  engaged  in  a  fight 
for  the  possession  of  the  Rajec  bridge  beyond  the 
Cerna,  which  I  had  witnessed  from  the  French  side 
on  November  19th.  The  bridge  across  the  Cerna  at 
Vozarci  having  been  blown  up,  he  told  me,  the  Bul- 
gars first  tried  to  throw  a  temporary  pontoon  bridge 
across,  but  the  swift  current  carried  it  away,  so  the 
Bulgarians  actually  crossed  the  Cerna  by  wading, 
though  the  rapid  stream  ran  breast-high,  and  it  was 
snowing  heavily  at  the  time.  They  even  forded  it  by 
night,  each  man  holding  his  rifle  above  his  head  with 
one  hand,  and  gripping  the  shoulder  of  his  neighbour 
with  the  other.  Out  of  the  regiment  to  which  this 
deserter  belonged  twenty  men  were  swept  away  and 
drowned  that  night  in  the  fast-flowing,  icy-cold 
water.  The  strength  of  the  force  that  followed  up 


THE  FIBST  FIGHTING  «7 

tbe  French,  be,  as  a  simpk  non-commissioned  officer, 
did  not  know,  but  he  believed  that  there  were  three 
Bulgarian  divisions  available  which  had  been  oppos- 
ing the  French  beyond  the  Cerna.  They  found  the 
Kavadar  triangle  an  empty  waste  of  snow  and  slush, 
for  the  French  had  made  good  their  retreat  to  Demir 
Kapu.  The  Bulgars,  to  whom  the  rigours  of  a 
Balkan  winter  caused  less  suffering  than  to  their 
opponents,  tramped  relentlessly  after  them.  From 
the  Cerna  to  Demir  Kapu  they  were  thirty-six 
hours  on  the  march  without  sleep  and  without  rations. 
After  their  soaking  in  the  bitter  Cerna  their  officers 
no  doubt  feared  frostbite  among  the  troops,  were  they 
to  haft  for  long.  Tbe  men  begged  bread  in  the 
wretched  half -depopulated  villages  through  which 
they  passed.  And,  if  it  was  not  given  immediately, 
they  took  it  together  with  anything  else  portable  that 
seemed  umrth  looting. 

The  Bulgarian  guns  could  not,  owing  to  the  state 
of  the  primitive  road,  keep  up  with  this  rate  of  march, 
and  the  French  artillery  posted  on  the  Demir  Kapu 
position,  accordingly  caused  the  enemy  considerable 
loss  when  they  reached  it.  A  violent  infantry  attack 
was  nevertheless  made  on  the  Demir  Kapu  trenches, 
but  tile  French  beat  it  off,  and  gave  time  for  their  main 
body  to  get  back,  though  in  great  apprehension  of  be- 
ing outflanked  by  a  Bulgarian  movement  thfMi'pft  toe 
mountains,  into  the  next  "  watertight  compartment " 
at  Gradec,  and  so  to  Strumnitza  Station.  The  Bui- 
gars,  following  on,  next  attacked  the  Gradec  posi- 
tion, the  defence  of  which  cost  the  French  100 
men.  The  two  French  divisions  which  had  been  up- 
counLry  were  now  in  the  area  occupied  by  the  156th 


38          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

Division,  part  of  which  withdrew  across  the  Bojimia 
river,  where  it  took  up  a  defensive  position,  in  rela- 
tion with  another  fortified  "  bridgehead  "  at  Mirovca 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  Vardar.  But  as  the  French 
thus  steadily  fell  back,  the  conditions  of  their  retreat, 
desperately  hard  as  they  were  already  rendered  by 
the  deep  snow,  the  bitter  cold,  the  fog  and  the  un- 
speakable mud  and  slush,  became  more  difficult  in 
proportion  as  the  numbers  of  the  retiring  force  were 
augmented  through  its  being  withdrawn  upon  itself. 
For  the  available  routes  remained  limited  to  the  rail- 
way and  to  adjacent  tracks  such  as  would  be  con- 
sidered impossible  in  Europe.  Motor-cars  sank  to 
the  axles  and  could  only  make  progress  at  all  with  the 
aid  of  constant  tows  from  double  teams  of  bullocks, 
fortunately  plentiful  in  the  country.  Limbers  and 
waggons  were  bogged  in  every  dip  of  the  ground, 
and  the  mules  harnessed  to  them  would  often  grow 
fractious  and  refuse  to  continue  the  weary  struggle. 
So  bad  were  the  conditions  that  the  57th  Division 
took  a  whole  day  to  cover  four  miles.  The  men, 
sinking  ankle-deep  in  mud  at  every  step,  were  dead- 
tired,  staggering  under  the  weight  of  their  packs,  wet 
to  the  skin,  starved  with  cold  and  hunger;  they  had 
been  marching  and  fighting  for  days  in  the  snow  over 
rough,  steep  paths  high  up  the  rocky  side  of  the  Var- 
dar gorge  where  a  slip  meant  death,  often  sleeping 
such  sleep  as  they  could  get  shelterless  in  the  open. 
They  were  covered  with  lice.  For  a  fortnight  they 
had  not  had  their  boots  off  or  washed  even  their  faces. 
Like  all  armies  of  spirit  they  were  disheartened  by 
the  fact  that  they  were  retreating,  although  it  was  a 
retirement  that  carried  with  it  no  disgrace.  Nor 


THE  FIRST  FIGHTING  $9 

were  the  inhabitants  of  some  of  the  villages  they 
passed  through  friendly  in  their  reception.  Long 
experience  of  wars, — regular  and  irregular, — has 
filled  the  population  of  the  Balkans  with  terror  and 
dread  of  armies  on  the  march.  Moreover  the  Turkish 
and  Bulgarian  sections  of  the  population  of  Mace- 
donia were  naturally  hostile  to  their  countries'  re- 
treating enemies.  In  more  than  one  village  strag- 
gling French  soldiers  were  found  murdered  with  their 
eyes  and  tongues  torn  out  by  the  frenzied  women  of 
the  place. 

And  now  Strumnitza  Station,  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant depots  on  the  line,  with  its  accumulated  heaps 
of  supplies  and  ammunition,  its  strings  of  limbers, 
its  parks  of  carts  and  waggons  of  every  kind  requisi- 
tioned in  the  country,  had  to  be  evacuated  during  the 
night,  while  all  troops  were  pushed  on  south  of  the 
new  entrenched  position  astride  the  Vardar  from 
Mirovca  to  the  Bojimia  valley.  In  front  of  this  posi- 
tion the  Vardar  leaves  its  mountain  ravine  and  enters 
upon  a  flatter  tract  of  country,  so  that  the  ground 
became  more  favourable  for  the  pursuing  enemy's 
attacks.  Violent  fighting  took  place  here,  as  the  Bui- 
gars  attempted  to  turn  the  flanks  of  this  line  of  de- 
fence, while  the  French  were  improvising  yet  another 
position  near  Ghevgheli,  to  protect  the  evacuation  of 
the  large  depot  of  stores  and  Serbian  supplies  which 
had  been  collected  there,  because  of  the  apparent 
likelihood  of  the  interference  by  the  Greeks  with  the 
railway  to  Salonica  further  south. 

There  was  a  large  military  hospital  too,  at  Guev- 
gheli,  full  of  wounded,  and  with  the  limited  rolling- 
stock  which  was  all  that  the  Greeks  could  be  per- 


40          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

suaded  to  provide  it  seemed  very  doubtful  whether 
all  these  men  and  material  could  be  got  away  in  time. 
Guevgheli  railway-bridge,  one  of  the  principal  engi- 
neering works  on  the  line  from  Salonica  to  Nish,  was 
mined  ready  to  be  blown  up  just  as  the  ruined  one 
alongside  it  had  been  blown  up  in  the  Balkan  War 
three  years  before.  Unceasingly  the  plodding  files 
of  men  passed  over,  hustling  along  with  them  many 
of  the  little  country  donkeys  which  they  had  picked 
up  on  the  retreat  to  carry  cooking-pots  and  part  of 
their  heavy  packs.  The  donkeys  sometimes  jibbed  at 
the  sight  of  the  rushing  stream  below.  When  this 
happened  there  was  no  time  either  to  persuade  or  to 
drive  them.  The  way  must  not  be  blocked  for  a 
moment.  Over  into  the  river  twenty  feet  down,  with 
a  splash  and  a  squeal,  donkey,  kit  and  all  had  to  go 
and  be  swept  away  by  the  remorseless  Vardar.  There 
were  strings  of  rickety  carts  half-a-mile  long;  here 
a  convoy  of  ambulance  waggons;  there  a  train  of 
artillery  limbers.  Staff  cars  bumped  violently  over 
the  harder  sections  of  the  road  or  ploughed  with  boil- 
ing radiators  through  the  swampy  parts,  throwing 
out  fountains  of  mud  on  both  sides.  Flocks  of  sheep 
and  goats  straggled  along,  being  saved  from  the  Bui- 
gar.  There  were  the  incessant  blocks  that  always 
occur  when  the  multitudinous  traffic  of  an  army  is 
thus  congested.  Sometimes,  in  the  crossing  of  a 
swollen  stream,  horses  and  carts  would  sink  hopelessly 
into  a  patch  of  bottomless  mud ;  the  load  would  have 
to  be  hurriedly  transferred  to  another  already  over- 
burdened waggon  and  the  struggling  team  abandoned 
to  gradual  suffocation  unless  a  kindly  driver  shot 
them  before  going  on.  Every  one  was  wet,  weary, 


THE  FIRST  FIGHTING  41 

thoroughly  "  fed  up."  Yet  the  French  soldier,  thanks 
perhaps  to  his  safety-valve  of  picturesque  and  blood- 
curdling oaths,  kept  up  his  spirits,  as  he  usually  does 
on  every  occasion,  however  miserable,  and  seized  on 
the  smallest  excuse  for  a  laugh,  though  it  were  only 
at  his  own  misfortunes. 

The  difficulties  of  the  retreat  were  not  at  all 
les  sened  by  the  fact  that  the  working  of  the  two  rail- 
ways which  brought  the  Allies  down  from  the  Greek 
frontier  was  in  the  hands  of  Greek  officials,  thanks  to 
which  a  train  ran  off  the  line  at  a  critical  moment  and 
considerably  hampered  our  use  of  the  railway.  No 
one  was  hurt,  which  was  a  suspicious  circumstance, 
and  the  event  furthermore  occurred  at  the  same  spot 
as  a  similar  incident  in  the  Balkan  War,  so  that  there 
was  some  justification  for  strong  suspicion  of  delib- 
erate obstruction  by  the  Greeks. 

On  the  last  night  at  Guevgheli  the  scene  was  one 
characteristic  of  the  terrors  of  war.  The  town  had 
already  been  set  on  fire,  and  the  big  barracks  were 
blazing.  The  red  light  flashed  back  fitfully  from  the 
eddying  Vardar.  It  was  raining.  The  tail-end  of  the 
bedraggled  procession  of  the  retreating  army  was  still 
defiling  across  the  river  and  on  into  the  mire  and  the 
black  night  beyond.  Behind  it  the  rifles  and  machine- 
guns  of  the  rearguard  rattled  without  pause.  The 
Bulgarian  deserter  with  whom  I  later  had  several  con- 
versations was  in  the  forefront  of  the  pursuit  and  de- 
scribed it  to  me  graphically.  "  The  French  guns," 
he  said,  "  did  great  damage  to  the  Bulgars  at  Guev- 
gheli. For  our  own  artillery  was  following  on  behind, 
much  delayed  by  the  snow.  My  regiment  was  ad- 
vancing in  column,  not  knowing  that  the  French  were 


42          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

so  near,  when  their  batteries  suddenly  opened  fire. 
We  should  all  have  been  killed  if  we  had  not  been 
partly  hidden  from  the  French  gunners  by  the  mul- 
berry trees  at  the  side  of  the  road,  which  screened  us. 
At  Guevgheli  we  were  in  so  bad  a  way  that  even  our 
officers  were  ready  to  order  a  retirement,  and  when 
we  saw  that  the  French  were  retreating  still  further 
across  the  Greek  frontier  we  were  so  astonished  that 
at  first  we  thought  it  was  a  ruse.  The  rifle  and 
machine-gun  fire  of  the  French  was  very  deadly  for 
us,  too,"  he  said.  "  We  could  see  the  French  mitrail- 
leuses in  the  open  and  our  officers  were  discussing  the 
chances  of  rushing  them,  but  they  lacked  confidence 
when  it  came  to  the  point.  The  fight  lasted  five  hours, 
and  only  finished  after  dark.  When  at  last  we  ad- 
vanced beyond  Guevgheli  a  general  order  was  given 
that  we  were  to  halt  at  the  Greek  frontier.  At  this 
we  were  overjoyed  and  said,  *  The  war  is  over.' 

"  Five  or  six  days  passed  so,  and  then  we  began 
to  talk  about  Salonica.  The  rumour  was  that  we  were 
waiting  for  German  reinforcements  who  were  to  go 
on  and  take  Salonica  and  then  hand  it  over  to  the 
Bulgarians.  But  when  a  whole  fortnight  had  passed 
and  we  were  still  in  billets  at  Gurincet,  near  Guev- 
gheli, often  bombed  by  French  aeroplanes,  and  on 
very  short  rations, — half-a-pound  of  bread  a  day  and 
very  little  meat, — we  began  to  grumble  and  say, 
'Where  are  the  Germans?'  Food  got  shorter  and 
shorter.  The  soldiers  stole  each  other's  bread  and  so 
fighting  began.  Bread  was  as  precious  as  diamonds. 
Those  that  were  wise  ate  their  ration  directly  they 
got  it,  or  they  would  be  attacked  and  have  it  taken 
from  them.  At  last  my  regiment  was  ordered  to 


THE  FIRST  FIGHTING  43 

furnish  the  frontier-guard,  and  I,  as  a  corporal,  went 
out  on  rounds  and  so  got  a  chance  of  slipping  away." 
When  the  last  train  had  cleared  Guevgheli  of  its 
wounded  and  stores,  the  order  was  given  to  the  French 
to  retire  across  the  Greek  frontier,  and  under  the  final 
protection  of  a  mixed  brigade  at  Smol,  the  exhausted 
troops  back  from  the  Cerna  completed  their  arduous 
but  successful  issue  from  so  many  and  great  dangers, 
and  were  withdrawn  by  railway  and  by  all  available 
tracks  to  what  is  now  the  line  of  defences  of  Sa- 
lonica.  Meanwhile  the  156th  Division  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Vardar  had  been  heavily  engaged  under 
much  the  same  conditions  as  those  described  in  the 
account  which  follows  in  the  next  chapter  of  the 
retreat  of  the  10th  Division,  and  had  fallen  back  by  a 
parallel  route. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  BULGAR  ATTACK  ON  THE   10TH 
DIVISION 

I  HAVE  related  in  the  last  chapter  how,  a  few 
days  after  the  landing  at  Salonica,  it  had  been 
agreed  between  the  French  and  British  com- 
manders that  the  British  contingent  of  the  Balkan 
Expeditionary  Force  should  act  in  support  of  the 
French.  Accordingly,  the  30th  Brigade  of  the  10th 
Division,  in  the  last  week  of  October,  moved  up  from 
Salonica  to  Guevgheli,  on  the  Vardar  at  the  Greco- 
Serbian  frontier,  and  marched  through  Bogdanci  by 
the  Chenali  river  to  Dedeli.  After  concentrating  there 
this  brigade  took  up  a  position  facing  north  between 
the  villages  of  Tatarli  and  Robrovo,  with  the  French 
holding  the  range  of  hills  just  in  front  of  them,  while 
they  were  encamped  at  its  foot  in  second  line.  The 
two  other  brigades  of  the  10th  Division  shortly  after- 
wards followed  the  30th  and  encamped  on  the  Doiran- 
Dedeli  road. 

On  November  20th-21st,  however,  the  10th  Division 
took  over  the  line  in  front  of  them  which  the  French 
had  hitherto  held,  and  thus  British  troops  came  for 
the  first  time  face  to  face  with  the  Bulgars.  The  posi- 
tion which  these  Irishmen  were  now  holding  formed 
the  right  of  the  Allied  Balkan  front,  of  which  the  left 
wing,  composed  entirely  of  French,  was  thrown  much 

44 


\Official  Photograph. 


MULES    AND    MOUNTAINS THE    COMMONEST 

FEATURES    OF    A    BALKAN    LANDSCAPE. 


BULGAR  ATTACK  ON  THE  10TH  DIVISION       '45 

in  advance,  having  for  a  month  past  been  pushed  far 
up  the  Vardar,  and  become  heavily  engaged  with  the 
Bulgars  on  the  Cerna. 

The  sector  for  which  we  thus  became  responsible 
lay  in  the  heart  of  a  steep,  confused,  rocky  mass  of 
mountains  between  Kostorina  and  Lake  Doiran. 
From  Kostorina,  where  we  linked  up  with  the  French, 
to  just  west  of  Memisli,  our  line  was  held  by  the  30th 
Brigade,  which  consisted  of  the  6th  and  7th  Dublins 
and  the  6th  and  7th  Munster  Fusiliers.  Memisli  vil- 
lage, including  an  important  advanced  position  800 
yards  north  of  it,  known  as  Rocky  Peak  (Piton 
Rocheux),  which  was  later  to  be  the  fulcrum  of  the 
Bulgar  attack  against  us  here,  was  held  by  the  31st 
Brigade,  who  had  the  5th  and  6th  Inniskillings  and 
the  5th  and  6th  Irish  Fusiliers.  Their  line  ran  as  far 
as  Prstan.  The  29th  Brigade  on  the  extreme  right 
(10th  Hampshires,  5th  Connaught  Rangers,  Irish 
Rifles,  Leinsters) ,  had  detached  two  battalions  to  rein- 
force the  30th  Brigade.  The  rest  of  it  was  echeloned 
in  the  rear  of  the  two  forward  brigades  on  the  ridge 
above  Humzali  and  Jumaabasi. 

Comparatively  peaceful  conditions  prevailed  on  the 
front  of  this  new  British  position  until  the  end  of 
November.  The  Bulgars  seemed  to  be  content  to 
mask  us  with  a  skeleton  force.  To  reach  our  lines 
from  Salonica  you  took  the  train  and  arrived  at 
Doiran  four  hours  later.  Nineteen  miles  of  good 
motoring-road  led  on  from  the  station  to  Dedeli,  where 
Divisional  Headquarters  were.  You  passed  through 
Doiran  town,  skirting  the  edge  of  the  broad,  shining 
lake,  and  then  gradually  climbed  up  the  wide  valley 
north-westwards, — how  often  since  one  has  sat  on  the 


46          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

hills  east  of  Doiran  and  watched  the  enemy's  trans- 
port coming  down  that  same  road. 

Dedeli  itself  is  a  characteristic  Turkish  village  of 
unpaved  lanes  and  alleys  filled  with  loose  boulders. 
The  low,  two-storied  houses,  each  in  a  little  compound 
of  its  own,  are  the  kind  of  dwelling  you  find  all  over 
Macedonia.  The  lower  rooms  are  dank,  earth-floored 
stables  or  storehouses,  where  the  winter's  supply  of 
Indian  corn  is  kept.  A  ramshackle  outside  wooden 
staircase  leads  up  to  a  broad  verandah  on  the  upper 
floor.  You  need  to  walk  gingerly,  for  half  the  planks 
are  loose.  Off  this  open  the  two  or  three  rooms  that 
make  up  the  dwelling.  These,  when  they  have  been 
cleaned  with  the  vigour  which  the  British  soldier  puts 
into  such  operations,  when  years'-old  accumulation 
of  filth  has  been  scraped  off  the  floor  and  burnt,  and 
when  walls  and  ceilings  have  been  whitewashed,  be- 
come quite  tolerably  habitable.  The  half -dome  fire- 
place, indeed,  reminds  one  rather  of  modern  villa 
architecture  at  home.  The  furniture,  if  any,  is  of  the 
roughest,  but  the  roofs  of  these  cottages  are  generally 
sound  and  the  soldier  asks  no  more.  It  is  always 
astonishing  to  observe  the  resourcefulness  and  zeal 
with  which  army  batmen  will  manufacture  tables, 
chairs,  washstands,  bookcases,  for  their  officers.  They 
"  scrounge  "  the  material  somehow  under  the  most 
improbable  circumstances,  and  are  amply  rewarded 
for  hours  of  labour  in  what  might  have  been  their  own 
spare  time  by  a  casual  remark  of  their  "  boss."  "  Oh, 
by  the  way,  Jenkins,  the  Colonel  liked  that  armchair 
you  knocked  together  for  me,  when  he  was  in  here 
to-day.  He  wants  to  know  if  you  can't  make  one  like 
it  for  him."  And  yet  all  their  labour  is  of  no  more 


BULGAR  ATTACK  ON  THE  10TH  DIVISION       47 

than  temporary  service.  When  the  battalion  moves  on 
these  products  of  ingenious  carpentry  must  be  left 
behind.  With  four  officers'  kits  to  go  in  one  half- 
limber  there  is  no  room  for  chairs.  But  where  would 
you  find  such  energy  in  peace  time?  If  a  castor  came 
off  a  sofa  would  your  butler,  at  thirty  shillings  a  week 
all  found,  put  it  on  again  for  you?  If  he  noticed  you 
had  nowhere  to  keep  your  smoking  things,  would  he 
sit  up  at  night  in  his  pantry  carving  you  a  pipe-rack? 
Yet  your  batman,  at  half-a-sovereign  a  month,  will 
improvise  you  a  bed  or  a  bath-tub  as  cheerfully  as  he 
brings  your  morning  tea.  War  is  a  great  energiser. 
As  soon  as  British  troops  on  campaign  arrive  in  a 
new  place  they  start  improving  it.  I  suppose  the  dry 
torrent-beds  of  Macedonia  have  been  used  as  roads  by 
its  inhabitants  for  thousands  of  years,  yet  until  the 
British  came  in  1915,  not  a  man  of  all  the  dozen  races 
that  have  lived  there  thought  of  moving  a  single 
boulder  out  of  the  way  to  give  pack-horses  easier 
passage.  If  it  is  the  right  season  our  men  plant  gar- 
dens. If  it  is  winter-time  they  lay  out  neat  little 
paths  all  up  and  down  the  mountain  sides  with  a  regu- 
lar edging  of  white  stones.  They  make  the  wilderness 
look  almost  ridiculously  tidy,  like  a  wild  man  of  the 
woods  with  his  hair  brushed  back  and  parted. 

10th  Divisional  Headquarters  at  Dedeli  overlooked 
the  half-mile  broad  valley  of  the  Bojimia  river,  whose 
bed,  however,  was  a  dry  waste  of  sand  and  rocks. 
Cotton,  hemp,  mulberry  trees,  withered  vestiges  of  the 
inevitable  Indian  corn,  witnessed  to  the  fertility  of 
the  district  whose  inhabitants  had  been  driven  away 
by  the  approach  of  hostilities, — a  kind  of  migration  to 
which,  as  Macedonians,  they  were  thoroughly  accus- 


48          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

tomed.  On  the  ridge  on  the  far  side  of  the  Bojimia 
valley  our  entrenched  positions  lay,  and  a  short  walk 
eastwards  along  the  river  bed  took  you  to  Tatarli, 
where  the  General  commanding  the  31st  Brigade  had 
his  headquarters.  The  Bulgarians  were  understood 
to  hold  a  line  of  trenches,  blockhouses  and  sangars 
along  the  ridge  parallel  to  ours.  It  was  estimated  that 
there  were  about  10,000  of  them  spread  out  between 
the  Greek  frontier  and  Strumnitza,  and  believed  to 
belong  to  the  2nd  Philipopolis  Division.  Deserters 
would  come  in  voluntarily  in  little  bodies.  They  com- 
plained of  shortage  of  food  in  the  enemy  lines.  One 
sheep  had  to  be  divided  between  250  men.  They  were 
generally  men  between  twenty-five  and  thirty-five 
and  seemed  to  be  townspeople.  One  drew  a  good 
contour-map  to  explain  how  he  had  come;  another 
mended  the  watches  of  the  Divisional  Headquarters 
Staff.  They  were  eager  to  show  that  they  had  not 
fired  their  rifles.  One  deserter  had  taken  off  his  tunic 
to  make  him  less  likely  to  be  shot  at. 

A  rough  ride  of  four  miles  took  you  from  Dedeli 
to  the  headquarters  of  the  30th  Brigade  at  Cadjali. 
The  French,  on  November  3rd,  had  driven  the  Bui- 
gars  up  the  broad  dry  Cadjali  ravine  along  which  one 
passed,  and  through  the  village  above.  It  had  been 
a  stiff  action  and  the  Bulgars  lost  out  of  one  battalion 
alone  350  men.  The  French  then  had  occupied  the 
crest  above  Cadjali  and  the  Bulgars  the  next  one 
across  a  valley  about  1,400  yards  broad,  where  their 
main  position  was  on  Hill  850.  While  the  French 
were  laboriously  building  up  their  new  line  and  had 
still  only  prised  elementary  trenches  a  few  feet  deep 
out  of  the  rocky  ground,  with  no  wire  in  front  of  them 


BULGAR  ATTACK  ON  THE  10TH  DIVISION       49 

at  all,  the  Bulgars  attacked  on  the  night  of  November 
16th  with  an  energy  which  was  a  foreshadowing  of 
that  which  they  displayed  a  month  later  against  our- 
selves. Creeping  down  the  gullies  on  their  side  of  the 
valley,  wearing  their  opinskis,  a  native  sandal  of  un- 
tanned  leather,  and  climbing  noiselessly  the  rough 
variegated  slopes  which  led  up  to  the  French  positions, 
they  made  a  determined  effort  to  rush  them,  and  fail- 
ing in  the  first  onslaught,  flung  themselves  down,  a 
bare  forty  yards  from  their  adversaries,  where  from 
behind  the  meagre  protection  of  "  scrapes  "  of  earth 
hurriedly  thrown  up,  they  poured  in  a  point-blank 
rifle  fire,  to  the  violence  of  which  the  piles  of  empty 
cartridge-cases  lying  by  each  individual  position  were 
evidence  that  still  remained  when  we  got  there.  But 
the  attack  failed  and  the  Bulgars  left  300  dead  behind 
them. 

The  line  which  the  30th  Brigade  set  themselves  to 
dig  on  taking  over  this  position  lay  along  the  ridge  just 
below  the  crest.  The  ground  was  of  unrelenting  rock, 
so  hard  to  work  that  the  French  had  chiefly  relied  on 
sangars  or  stone  redoubts,  but  these  being  liable  to 
splinter  under  shell  fire  the  30th  Brigade  did  not 
occupy  them,  leaving  them  empty  to  draw  the  enemy's 
artillery.  On  this  brigade  front  as  on  that  of  its 
neighbour,  there  was  no  action  at  all  during  Novem- 
ber, the  only  losses  being  caused  by  an  unlucky  Bulgar 
shell  which  fell  in  a  group  of  Dublin  Fusiliers,  killing 
nine  and  wounding  a  dozen. 

But  while  these  Irish  brigades  were  still  imperfectly 
installed  on  the  barren,  inhospitable  Dedeli  ridge, 
they  were  savagely  smitten  by  that  cruel  three-day 
blizzard  which  caused  bitter  suffering  to  our  troops  not 


50          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

only  in  the  Balkans  but  at  the  Dardanelles.  It  began 
on  November  27th  with  torrents  of  rain  which  soon 
turned  to  snow.  Then  it  froze  so  quickly  that  the 
drenched  skirts  of  greatcoats  would  stand  out  stiff 
like  a  ballet-dancer's  dress.  Even  down  at  Strum- 
nitza  Station  in  the  valley,  7.6°  below  zero  Fahrenheit 
was  registered,  and  up  on  that  exposed  knife-edge 
ridge  where  our  trenches  were,  the  biting  wind  made 
the  cold  more  piercing  still.  The  men  had  no  shelter 
but  waterproof  sheets  pegged  across  the  top  of  the 
open  trench  and  the  weight  of  accumulated  snow  soon 
broke  those  in.  They  had  had  no  time  to  make  dug- 
outs in  the  rocky  mountain  side ;  and  if  they  had  had 
time  they  had  no  materials. 

In  that  terrible  weather  our  patrols  and  those  of  the 
Bulgars  which  used  both  to  visit  the  unoccupied  village 
of  Ormanli  would  be  driven  to  shelter  and  light  fires 
in  houses  so  close  together  that  each  could  hear  the 
other  talking,  and  each  by  tacit  agreement  left  the 
other  undisturbed.  It  was  too  cold  to  fight. 

There  were  750  cases  of  frostbite  in  one  brigade 
alone  during  those  three  fierce  days,  when  it  seemed 
as  if  the  Balkan  winter  were  showing  the  worst  of 
which  it  was  capable.  Men  frozen  stiff  were  carried 
in  scores  from  the  trenches  to  the  first-aid  posts  to  be 
rubbed  back  to  life  again.  Warm  underclothing 
reached  the  division  in  the  very  middle  of  the  snow- 
storm, but  the  cold  was  too  bitter  for  the  men  to 
undress  to  put  it  on,  and  it  was  added  anyhow  to  the 
sacks  and  blankets  and  other  additional  garments 
that  each  did  his  best  to  accumulate,  a  pair  of  drawers 
being  used  as  a  muffler  or  tied  round  the  middle. 

It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  the  men  of  the 


BULGAR  ATTACK  ON  THE  10TH  DIVISION       51 

10th  Division  were  already  in  poor  physical  condition 
when  this  severe  ordeal  came  upon  them.  They 
looked  worse  indeed  than  they  had  at  Suvla.  The 
faces  of  most  of  them  were  yellow  and  wizened  and 
their  bodies  thin.  The  trying  climate  of  the  Gallipoli 
Peninsula  had  sapped  their  strength. 

On  December  1st  the  6th  Munsters  and  6th  Dublin 
Fusiliers  of  the  30th  Brigade  had  suffered  so  much  by 
cold  that  they  were  relieved  in  the  front  line  by  the  5th 
Connaught  Rangers  and  the  10th  Hampshires  of  the 
29th  Brigade. 

It  was  on  December  4th  that  the  Bulgars'  artillery- 
fire  began  to  be  better  directed  and  concentrated ;  and 
the  fact  became  evident  that  they  had  received  rein- 
forcements. On  December  5th  they  started  an  attack 
on  the  French  upon  our  left  to  the  west  of  the  Doiran- 
Strumnitza  road.  Meanwhile  their  activity  against  us 
increased  and  small  parties  of  Bulgars  began  to  creep 
up  the  little  nullahs  towards  our  front  line  and  open 
rifle  fire.  The  weather  since  December  2nd  had  be- 
come extremely  foggy. 

To  meet  the  increased  Bulgar  artillery  activity,  two 
batteries  of  field  guns  had  been  man-handled  with 
great  difficulty  to  a  position  1,000  yards  south  of 
Memisli.  These  were  the  guns  that  had  later  to  be 
abandoned  in  the  retreat.  It  was  only  by  the  hardest 
labour  that  wheeled  guns  were  ever  got  up  to  such  a 
position  at  all,  but  we  had  no  mountain  artillery,  and 
unless  this  step  had  been  taken  we  should  have  been 
without  reply  to  the  enemy's  shelling.  There  was  a 
working  party  of  100  men  told  off  to  get  the  guns 
away  had  there  been  time,  but  to  move  some  of  them 
it  was  necessary  to  go  out  in  front  of  the  position, 


52  THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

and  even  then  it  was  calculated  that  two  days'  careful 
work  would  have  been  required  to  withdraw  them. 

At  length,  on  the  afternoon  of  December  6th,  the 
Bulgar  attack  on  the  10th  Division  began.  Eight 
hundred  yards  north  of  Memisli  was  the  advanced  post 
known  as  Rocky  Peak.  The  effect  of  our  occupying 
this  had  been  to  deny  to  the  enemy  artillery  access  to 
the  right  flank  of  the  30th  Brigade.  The  hill  had 
originally  been  held  by  a  battalion  of  Irish  Fusiliers. 
But  there  was  no  cover  there;  it  was  nothing  but  a 
treeless,  shelterless,  boulder-strewn  height,  and  the 
battalion  had  suffered  so  severely  during  the  blizzard 
in  that  isolated  position  that  it  was  withdrawn  and 
only  one  company  and  one  machine-gun  were  left  to 
hold  it.  In  their  first  attack  on  Rocky  Peak  in  the 
afternoon  of  December  6th  the  Bulgars  captured  a 
small  trench,  but  later  were  driven  out  and  off  the 
hill  again. 

During  the  same  night,  however,  they  crept  along 
the  ravines  that  surrounded  the  isolated  peak  and  car- 
ried it  by  storm  at  5.30  on  the  morning  of  December 
7th.  About  thirty  of  our  troops  holding  it  were  cap- 
tured; the  rest  got  away.  This  loss  gave  the  enemy 
a  serious  footing  in  our  line,  for  the  Bulgars  brought 
up  mountain  artillery  and  machine-guns  onto  Rocky 
Peak  and  began  to  enfilade  the  front  of  the  30th 
Brigade,  which  was  also  bombarded  from  the  other 
side  by  field-gun  batteries  at  Cepelli.  The  30th  Bri- 
gade had  a  line  which  made  a  salient,  and  was  thus 
considerably  exposed,  and  it  became  clear  that  they 
were  to  be  the  object  of  the  main  Bulgar  attack.  Dur- 
ing the  night  of  December  6th-7th  two  attacks  were 
also  made  on  the  trenches  of  the  Connaughts  on  Kos- 


torino  ridge  by  largely  superior  forces  of  Germans 
and  Bulgars,  but  these  were  driven  off,  and  all  night 
long  the  artillery  bombardment,  strangely  muffled 
by  the  fog,  continued  with  enough  severity  to  hinder 

supplies  from  reaching  the  trenches. 

Only  gradually  was  it  realised  that  the  hitherto  pas- 
sive Bulgars  were  about  to  make  an  attack  in  force 
upon  our  right.  General  Mahon,  who  was  at  30th 
Brigade  Headquarters  on  the  morning  of  the  7th,  had 
asked  General  Sarrail  to  expedite  as  much  as  possible 
the  retreat  which  was  now  in  full  progress  under  most 
difficult  conditions  of  the  French  contingent  down 
the  Vardar.  An  air-reconnaissance  had  reported  no 
signs  of  Bulgar  reinforcements  arriving  on  our  front, 
but  this  was  due  no  doubt  to  the  prevailing  fog.  The 
converging  artillery  fire  upon  the  30th  Brigade  front 
was  now  becoming  very  severe  and  causing  heavy- 
losses  to  the  10th  Hampshires  and  5th  Connaughts, 
The  Connaughts  were  holding  a  salient  which  was  in 
fact  too  big  for  them,  and  the  Bulgars  began  massing 
for  an  attack  in  some  dead  ground  600  yards  in  advance 
of  their  trenches,  where  our  artillery  could  not  reach 
them.  At  2.40  P.M.  this  attack  was  launched  in  mass 
on  600  yards  of  front,  at  a  place  where  the  ground 
gave  cover  close  up  to  our  line.  The  Bulgars  had  about 
four  battalions  to  our  two,  but  the  Connaughts  had 
already  lost  so  heavily  that  having  come  up  into  the 
line  960  strong  they  could  only  muster  350  after  this 
day's  fighting.  The  10th  Hampshires  retired  to  the 
prepared  second  position  a  mile  behind,  losing  about 
200  killed  and  wounded.  The  Connaughts,  who  had 
been  badly  cut  up  by  the  heavy  artillery-fire,  fell  back 
too.  The  commander  of  the  31st  Brigade,  having 


54  THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

the  impression  that  his  right  flank  was  being  sur- 
rounded, retired  also  about  the  same  time.  This  new 
position  to  which  the  30th  Brigade  withdrew  lay 
between  Cadjali  and  Tatarli  on  Crete  Simonet  with 
an  advanced  position  on  Crete  Rivet.  The  Bulgars 
pushed  on  after  us,  but  were  held  back  from  continu- 
ing the  pursuit  by  the  fire  of  our  field-artillery  which 
prevented  them  from  crossing  the  Kostorino  ridge. 
Their  advance  to  that  point  was  witnessed  at  close 
range  by  a  young  subaltern  of  the  7th  Munsters  who 
had  been  on  the  left  flank  of  the  Connaughts,  and  was 
left  behind  with  his  platoon  in  a  wood.  He  was  never 
found  by  the  enemy  and  got  safely  away  with  his  men 
at  night.  The  Bulgars  came  on,  he  said,  with  their 
rifles  slung  on  their  backs,  shouting  and  singing.  He 
saw  many  Germans  among  them.  They  entered  Ka- 
jali,  30th  Brigade's  old  headquarters,  and  a  British 
army  doctor  who  had  arrived  in  the  middle  of  all  these 
events  and  wanted  to  report  at  Brigade  Headquarters, 
straying  innocently  into  the  village  that  night,  stum- 
bled to  his  astonishment  upon  Bulgars  rejoicing  round 
their  bivouac  fires.  He  was  fired  at,  but  got  away  in 
the  fog. 

December  8th  was  a  day  of  heavy  artillery  and 
machine-gun  fire  upon  our  new  position.  During 
the  night  we  had  been  reinforced  by  three  French 
companies  and  a  mountain-battery.  The  fog  grew 
constantly  denser,  and  in  this  broken  country  of  steep, 
twisting  ravines  and  pathless  hill-sides,  it  was  difficult 
to  know  whether  the  enemy  might  not  be  pushing  on 
upon  the  flanks  to  surround  us. 

At  5  P.M.  on  December  8th  the  30th  Brigade  were 
ordered  to  withdraw  to  a  new  line  across  the  Dedeli 


BULGAR  ATTACK  ON  THE  10TH  DIVISION       55 

pass,  while  the  31st  was  to  take  up  a  position  in 
alignment  with  them  along  the  Karabail  ridge,  be- 
hind which  runs  the  road  back  to  Doiran,  where  two 
battalions  of  the  29th  Brigade  were  already  estab- 
lished. The  30th  Brigade  started  retiring  at  5.30  P.M. 
and  as  the  last  battalion  left  the  position  the  Bulgars 
rushed  up  the  hill  with  cheers,  firing  flares  as  they 
came.  The  gallant  rearguard  of  two  companies  which 
had  held  on  to  Crete  Rivet,  the  advanced  position  800 
yards  in  front,  throughout  the  whole  day,  under  very 
heavy  shelling,  gave  them  a  final  burst  of  rapid  fire 
as  they  came.  It  was  thanks  to  these  two  companies 
that  the  main  position  of  Crete  Simonet  was  only  at- 
tacked as  we  left  it.  The  costly  retirement  from  the 
original  line,  where  the  advanced  position  on  Rocky 
Peak  was  lost,  contrasts  in  this  respect  with  the  safety 
with  which  Crete  Simonet  was  evacuated.  In  these  two 
companies  which  held  off  the  Bulgars,  however,  all  the 
officers  were  killed  and  wounded,  and  one  came  away 
only  twenty-nine,  the  other  fifty-nine  strong.  Mean- 
while the  French  on  our  left,  being  now  exposed  to  the 
danger  of  outflanking,  retired  southwards  on  Decem- 
ber 8th  to  Cestovo,  their  line  facing  north-west  and 
later  to  Kizil-Doganli. 

On  December  9th  the  31st  Brigade  on  Karabail 
was  replaced  by  a  brigade  of  another  division  which 
began  to  arrive,  the  31st  going  into  reserve.  The  gen- 
eral commanding  this  division  came  up  at  the  same 
time  and  took  charge  of  the  operations.  The  dense 
fog  made  it  difficult  for  the  new  brigade  to  orient 
itself,  and  for  the  30th  to  get  in  touch  with  them,  so 
that  a  proper  liaison  was  not  made  before  the  10th. 
On  that  day  the  French  were  heavily  attacked  on  their 


56          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

new  line  at  Cestovo  while  their  left  again  was  being 
rapidly  driven  back  down  the  Vardar  on  Guevgheli. 
By  the  afternoon  of  the  next  day  the  Bulgars  were 
pressing  so  hard  upon  the  French  that  they  had  fallen 
back  to  a  front  stretching  from  Furka  through  Bog- 
danci  to  Guevgheli,  and  it  was  the  10th  Division's 
turn  for  its  flank  to  be  left  in  the  air.  The  Bulgars 
furthermore  were  now  also  trying  to  get  round  our 
right  flank  and  so  down  to  Lake  Doiran  to  cut  our 
only  road  of  retreat  where  it  reaches  the  north-west 
end  of  the  Lake.  Fortunately  the  pathlessness  of 
the  mountains  prevented  that  attempt  from  suc- 
ceeding. 

But  Dedeli  had  to  be  evacuated  hastily  on  the  night 
of  the  llth  or  it  would  be  too  late.  Accordingly  a 
general  order  was  given  for  the  10th  Division  to  retire 
across  the  Greek  frontier.  It  was  not,  of  course,  sure 
whether  the  Bulgar  pursuit  would  stop  at  this  political 
obstacle,  and  there  was  further  a  strong  report  that 
the  Greeks  were  coming  in  against  us,  and  that  the 
communications  of  the  division  with  Salonica  were 
anything  but  safe.  The  31st  Brigade,  already  con- 
centrated, marched  back  first,  then  the  30th  Brigade 
was  withdrawn  south  of  Doiran  and  bivouacked  near 
the  lake. 

A  good  deal  of  confusion  inevitably  attended 
these  rapid  movements  of  retreat.  Thus  at  1  A.M. 
on  the  morning  of  the  12th  when  the  30th  Brigade 
received  orders  at  Dedeli  to  retire  on  Doiran,  one 
battalion  had  all  its  company  cooks  (about  fifteen 
men)  sleeping  together  in  a  house.  Dedeli,  like 
all  Macedonian  villages,  is  a  straggling  place, 
and  when  the  order  was  being  circulated,  the 


BULGAR  ATTACK  ON  THE  10TH  DIVISION       57 

cooks'  house  was  overlooked.  So,  huddled  round 
their  comfortable  fire,  they  slept  on  undisturbed 
till  daylight,  when  on  going  to  the  door,  they  were 
horrified  to  find  the  street  full  of  Bulgars.  The 
cooks  seized  their  rifles,  and  the  Bulgars  at  this  sign 
of  what  looked  like  hostile  action,  took  cover  and 
opened  a  characteristically  ill-aimed  fire,  of  which  the 
cooks  took  advantage  to  make  a  bolt  for  it  as  hard  as 
they  could  go  down  the  road  to  Doiran  under  cover 
of  the  fog,  and  all  rejoined  their  battalion  safely. 

The  Bulgars  advancing  down  the  Strumnitza  road 
stopped  just  short  of  the  Greek  frontier  stone  on  the 
outskirts  of  Doiran  town,  the  30th  Brigade  Headquar- 
ters only  leaving  Doiran  about  ten  minutes  before 
their  arrival. 

The  30th  Brigade  now  came  down  to  Salonica  by 
train,  and  a  remark  that  indicates  the  conditions 
prevalent  at  the  time  was  made  by  the  Greek  station- 
master  at  Doiran,  as  the  first  trainload  of  British  sol- 
diers went  out.  "  I  am  pro- Ally,"  he  said,  "  but  the 
man  at  Kilindir  is  pro-German,  and  probably  won't 
allow  your  train  to  pass." 

The  other  brigades  came  down  by  road,  and  the 
worn-out  10th  Division  then  went  into  camp  at  Ka- 
pudjilar  just  outside  Salonica,  until  it  was  moved  up 
to  hold  the  line  along  the  lakes  and  across  to  Stavros, 
which  was  made  part  of  the  entrenched  camp.  So 
ended  the  British  share  in  the  retreat  from  Serbia. 

Our  first  encounter  with  the  Bulgars  as  enemies 
had  not  been  one  to  fill  us  with  unmingled  satisfac- 
tion, but  at  the  same  time  there  were  many  sound 
reasons  for  considering  that  the  10th  Division  had 
made  the  best  of  very  unfavourable  conditions.  To 


58          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

begin  with,  it  had  been  very  heavily  outnumbered. 
The  usual  estimate  at  the  time  of  the  strength  which 
the  Bulgars  brought  to  bear  upon  us  was  four 
divisions,  which  would  have  meant  about  100,000  men. 
This  is  no  doubt  exaggerated,  but  where  the  main 
attack  was  made  upon  the  30th  Brigade,  they  were 
probably  four  to  one,  and  elsewhere  they  were  two 
to  one.  They  had  the  advantage  of  possessing  much 
mountain  artillery,  which  in  this  rough  and  broken 
country  was  far  more  effective  than  our  field-guns. 

The  explanation  of  the  arrival  of  these  increased 
Bulgarian  numbers  upon  a  front  which  had  been 
supposed  to  be  held  by  almost  a  skeleton  force,  is  that 
after  the  enemy's  capture  of  Monastir,  the  troops  that 
had  been  held  in  reserve  for  that  operation,  and  were 
now  no  longer  needed,  were  brought  down  from  Us- 
kub  along  the  Strumnitza  road  onto  our  front. 

Except  for  the  guns  which  had  to  be  abandoned  at 
Memisli,  little  material  was  left  behind  in  the  retreat 
of  the  10th  Division ;  a  certain  amount  of  ammunition 
was  lost,  especially  at  Crete  Simonet,  and  perhaps  one 
day's  rations  in  all  were  abandoned.  All  the  trans- 
port was  got  away.  The  fog  played  a  very  important 
part  in  these  operations.  It  stopped  all  aerial  scout- 
ing, and  greatly  interfered  with  artillery  observation. 
It  kept  on  constantly  gathering  and  lifting  alternately 
in  a  way  that  made  this  confusing  country,  where 
every  feature  is  the  twin  image  of  a  hundred  others, 
unusually  baffling  for  an  outnumbered  force,  unaccus- 
tomed to  the  ground.  The  fog  favoured  us  in  so  far, 
as  but  for  it  the  enemy  might  have  pushed  on  faster 
and  shelled  us  heavily  from  commanding  positions  as 
we  fell  back.  On  the  other  hand,  it  helped  him  in  his 


BULGAR  ATTACK  ON  THE  10TH  DIVISION       59 

infantry  attacks,  for  several  times  our  men  held  their 
fire  when  Bulgars  loomed  up  through  the  mist,  hesi- 
tating to  shoot  lest  they  might  be  detachments  of  our 
own  troops. 

And  now  the  principal  objective  which  the  Allied 
public,  at  any  rate,  and  even  the  majority  of  the  fight- 
ing soldiers  concerned,  had  ascribed  to  our  expedition 
to  the  Balkans, — that  of  the  rescue  of  Serbia  from  her 
invaders, — had  come  unmistakably  to  naught.  Mon- 
astir,  the  last  town  in  New  Serbia,  and  one  of  the 
coveted  prizes  to  gain  which  Bulgaria  joined  in  the 
war,  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  The 
whole  of  the  national  territory  was  overrun,  and  the 
Serbian  Army  was  no  more  than  a  disorganised  mul- 
titude of  starving  men  streaming  across  the  savage 
mountains  of  Albania  towards  the  Adriatic,  and  fall- 
ing by  thousands  in  the  snow  to  die  on  the  way.  With 
the  disappearance  of  what  was  popularly  regarded  as 
the  primary  object  of  the  expedition  had  vanished, 
too,  the  hopes,  unpractical  though  they  had  always 
been,  of  a  rapid  advance  on  Sofia,  or  at  any  rate  to 
some  point  on  the  trans-Balkan  railway,  where  a 
barrier  could  be  erected  to  cut  off  the  through  com- 
munication by  train  between  Germany  and  Turkey, 
which  was  now  complete  and  which  would  aggravate 
considerably  our  already  unsatisfactory  position  at  the 
Dardanelles.  The  point  we  have  now  reached,  there- 
fore, marks  an  important  stage  in  the  story  of  the 
Salonica  campaign.  It  is  the  beginning  of  a  long 
spell  of  military  inactivity,  but  of  great  labour  of 
preparation  for  renewed  action  against  our  enemies, — 
German,  Austrian,  Bulgar  and  Turk, — who  were 
unfortunately  able  during  the  same  period  to  establish 


60          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

themselves  in  most  formidable  defensive  positions  to 
guard  what  they  had  won. 

The  Bulgar  pursuit  of  the  retreating  Allies  was 
not  carried  across  the  Greek  frontier.  It  stopped  on 
a  line  from  Guevgheli  to  Doiran.  It  was  half 
expected  at  the  time  that  the  enemy  might  keep  on 
with  his  advance  and  try  to  drive  the  Allies  into  the 
sea.  But  there  were  several  good  reasons  against  it. 
For  one  thing  our  Army  was  falling  back  on  to  rein- 
forcements which  had  arrived,  and  had  had  time  dur- 
ing the  recent  operations  to  receive  their  full  equip- 
ment of  guns  and  material.  Another  explanation 
depends  upon  the  theory  that  the  Bulgars  may  have 
had  a  secret  convention  with  the  Greeks  about  enter- 
ing their  territory  at  that  time. 

But  physical  conditions  alone  were  enough  to  hold 
up  the  Bulgars  at  the  southern  frontier  of  Serbia. 
They  were  as  exhausted  as  the  French ;  they,  too,  had 
suffered  from  the  bitter  weather  conditions,  and  they 
had  had  heavy  losses  in  their  successive  attacks  upon 
the  series  of  entrenched  positions  which  had  protected 
the  French  retreat.  Moreover  the  lack  of  available 
routes  of  march  was  an  obstacle  even  more  formidable 
for  the  Bulgars  than  it  had  been  for  the  French,  for 
the  latter  had  naturally  blown  up  the  tunnels  and 
bridges  as  they  came  down  the  railway,  so  that  the 
enemy  could  only  use  the  tracks  from  village  to  vil- 
lage, which  were  in  an  appalling  condition  and  quite 
incapable  of  carrying  the  supply  columns  and  artil- 
lery of  an  army.  To  press  forward  yet  another  fifty 
miles  with  exhausted  infantry  and  only  mountain 
artillery  upon  an  adversary  close  up  against  his  sea- 
base  with  the  heavy  guns  of  warships  behind  to  sup- 


BULGAR  ATTACK  ON  THE  10TH  DIVISION       61 

port  him  would  have  been  a  rash  undertaking.  The 
Bulgars  had  won  the  parts  of  Macedonia  they  coveted, 
and  they  could  afford  for  the  present  to  pause. 

And  now  the  question  naturally  arose,  what  was  to 
become  of  the  Allied  Expeditionary  Force?  For  the 
present  there  was  no  more  Serbia  and  no  more  Serbian 
Army  except  a  disorganised  mass  of  men  straggling 
across  Albania  into  exile.  It  became  necessary  to 
consider  the  Near  Eastern  situation  as  a  whole.  The 
Salonica  Expedition  had  an  essential  relation  with  the 
campaigns  at  Gallipoli  (which  was  now  on  the  eve  of 
being  evacuated)  and  in  Egypt.  General  Munro 
and  Lord  Kitchener  had  already  successively  visJted 
both  the  Dardanelles  and  Salonica  to  examine  the  situ- 
ation on  the  spot,  and  to  consider  the  bearings  of  the 
new  Balkan  enterprise  on  the  projected  evacuation  of 
the  former  zone  of  operations.  One  scheme  that  had 
been  mooted  at  that  time  was  the  withdrawal  of  our 
forces  from  the  Balkans  to  make  yet  another  landing 
at  the  Dardanelles,  in  a  final  attempt  to  get  through. 
As  a  result  of  Lord  Kitchener's  visit,  however,  it  had 
been  decided  that  it  was  the  Dardanelles  that  should 
be  abandoned. 

It  was  still  necessary  to  take  into  consideration 
Egypt,  under  whose  command  the  British  contingent 
at  Salonica,  as  part  of  the  Mediterranean  Expedi- 
tionary Force,  was.  Egypt  at  that  time  was  exposed 
to  the  possibility  of  attack  from  both  sides,  and  it 
might  be  debated  whether  at  any  rate  the  British 
troops  in  the  Balkans  could  not  be  more  profitably 
used  there.  But  strong  arguments  could  be  advanced 
against  that  scheme.  For  one  thing,  if  Salonica  were 
to  continue  to  be  held  in  such  a  way  that  the  port 


62          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

should  be  secure  from  long-range  bombardment,  in 
case  of  an  enemy  advance,  the  line  of  the  defences 
would  have  to  be  so  long  that  it  could  not  be  main- 
tained unless  the  full  number  of  Allied  troops  then  in 
the  Balkans  remained  there.  Evacuation  might,  too, 
have  entailed  the  destruction  of  a  large  quantity  of 
stores,  to  keep  them  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy,  as  happened  at  the  Dardanelles.  These,  and 
doubtless  many  other  considerations,  had  all  to  be 
taken  into  account  by  the  Allied  Governments.  And 
the  issue  of  their  deliberations  was  that  the  joint 
expedition  to  the  Balkans  should  remain.  General 
Sarrail  accordingly  proceeded  to  create  for  himself 
a  firmly  established  and  protected  base  for  future 
operations  by  the  construction  of  the  "  entrenched 
camp  of  Salonica." 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  "  BIRD-CAGE  " 

THE  entrenched  camp  of  Salonica  is  the  most 
conspicuous  of  the  many  great  engineering 
works  which  the  Allied  Armies  have  carried 
out  in  Macedonia.  It  has  made  what  was,  on  the  land- 
ward side,  an  open  town,  into  one  of  the  principal 
fortresses  of  the  world,  and  so  thoroughly  has  the 
work  been  done  that  such  will  Salonica  permanently 
remain  on  condition  that  the  trenches  are  kept  from 
decaying  under  the  weather  and  that  the  government 
responsible  for  Salonica  disposes  of  enough  men  and 
guns  to  garrison  the  long  line. 

For  the  first  four  months  of  1916  the  building  of  the 
entrenched  camp  engrossed  the  energies  of  the  Anglo- 
French  Army  at  Salonica,  assisted  by  a  good  deal  of 
native  labour.  The  ground  behind  the  town  lent  itself 
to  the  construction  of  a  strong  defensive  position. 
Eight  miles  to  the  north  of  the  city  there  is  a  high 
ridge  running  east  and  west  which  forms  a  natural 
rampart  dominating  the  broad  plain  beyond.  The 
work  of  fortifying  this  ridge  and  extending  the  posi- 
tion on  each  flank  to  the  sea  was  carried  on  under 
completely  peaceful  conditions,  the  enemy  remaining 
inactive  thirty  miles  away  where  he  had  halted  after 
our  retreat  from  Serbia,  and  where  he,  too,  began  to 
dig  himself  in. 

63 


64          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

The  trenches  of  the  Salonica  defences  were  sited 
and  re-sited  with  the  most  painstaking  care.  General 
Sarrail  laid  great  stress  upon  a  thorough  and  elabo- 
rate system  of  wiring.  Roads  and  light  Decauville 
railways  were  laid  to  carry  men  and  ammunition 
rapidly  to  different  parts  of  the  front.  Great  was 
the  labour  expended.  Some  of  the  works  that  I  have 
visited  there  are  remarkable  examples  of  strength 
and  convenience  combined  with  complete  conceal- 
ment. 

The  whole  of  the  perimeter  is  not,  of  course,  cov- 
ered by  a  continuous  trench-line.  There  are  sectors 
which  Nature  has  already  made  sufficiently  impass- 
able, such  as  the  marshes  along  the  lower  banks  of  the 
Vardar,  south  of  the  bridge  on  the  Monastir  road. 
About  twenty-five  miles  of  the  eastern  end  of  the 
defences,  too, — which  is  the  British  sector, — are  cov- 
ered by  the  broad  lakes  of  Langaza  and  Beshik. 

Though  it  is  by  no  means  likely  that  these  elaborate 
defences  will  ever  be  attacked,  provided  that  the 
existing  conditions  in  the  Balkans  continue,  with  the 
Allies  holding  a  series  of  strong  lines  much  further 
up-country  and  having  the  initiative  of  the  fighting  in 
their  hands,  it  is  impossible,  of  course,  to  describe  in 
any  detail  the  defences  of  Salonica,  despite  the  fact 
that  the  enemy,  with  his  all-pervading  Balkan  spy- 
system,  probably  knows  as  much  about  them  as  any- 
body. But  there  are  a  few  interesting  facts  about 
them  that  are  common  knowledge,  and  indeed  within 
the  reach  of  any  one  who  has  a  good  map,  such  as  the 
Austrian  one,  which  we  use. 

During  the  first  four  months  of  1916,  however, 
a  German  push  southward  seemed  quite  possible. 


THE  "BIRD-CAGE"  65 

Enemy  agencies  announced  with  a  reiteration  that  be- 
came more  and  more  unconvincing  that  the  Allies  at 
Salonica  would  be  overwhelmed  and  that  Germany 
would  extend  her  sphere  of  influence  to  the  limits  of 
the  Balkan  Peninsula.  '  You  will  be  driven  into  the 
sea,"  prophesied,  with  sinister  satisfaction,  the  royal- 
ist General  Dousmanis,  Chief  of  the  General  Staff  at 
Athens,  "  and  you  will  not  have  time  even  to  cry  for 
mercy." 

In  presence  of  the  possibility  that  Salonica  might 
have  to  resist  a  siege,  the  defences  of  the  town  were 
devised  on  three  main  principles : 

1.  To  keep  the  town  and  harbour  as  safe  as  possible 
from  long-range  enemy  bombardment. 

2.  To  make  the  defended  front  of  such  extent  that 
the  enemy  would  need  to  dispose  of  large  forces  to 
attack  it. 

3.  To  have  both  wings  of  the  line  of  defence 
strongly  supported,  so  as  to  ensure  that  the  enemy 
should  not  be  able  to  take  the  town  by  an  encircling 
attack  from  the  mouth  of  the  Vardar  on  one  side  and 
Karaburnu  on  the  other,  imitating  Napoleon's  suc- 
cessful tactics  at  the  siege  of  Toulon  (where  he  cap- 
tured the  town  by  first  taking  the  fort  of  Malbosquet 
that  commanded  the  harbor,  and  by  posting  French 
guns  there  which  cut  the  garrison  off  from  the  sup- 
port of  the  fleet) . 

A  front  that  is  of  so  varied  a  nature  as  that  of  the 
entrenched  camp  is  clearly  not  all  of  the  same  impor- 
tance from  the  defender's  point  of  view.  A  glance 
at  the  map  will  show  one,  for  instance,  that  the 
only  way  for  an  enemy  attack  to  reach  the  most 
easterly  sector,  at  Stavros,  is  by  following  the  road 


66          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

from  the  mouth  of  the  Struma  along  the  shore  of  the 
Gulf  of  Orfano;  that  is  the  one  route  along  which 
heavy  artillery  and  wheeled  transport  could  pass. 
And  this  road  could  be  absolutely  covered  by  the  big 
guns  of  the  British  monitors  in  the  Gulf  of  Orfano, 
so  that  the  enemy,  if  he  came  that  way,  would  have  to 
run  the  gauntlet  of  twelve-inch  shrapnel. 

The  whole  of  this  sector,  however,  was  at  first 
under  the  disadvantage  of  having  very  bad  communi- 
cations with  Salonica.  Stavros  was  supplied  by  sea 
round  the  Chalcidice  Peninsula,  but  a  lot  of  work  in 
the  way  of  building  piers  had  to  be  done  there  before 
this  was  satisfactory,  and  in  case  a  Bulgarian  attack 
had  taken  place  German  submarines  would  no  doubt 
have  done  their  best  to  interrupt  this  sea-transport. 
Since  the  defences  of  Salonica  were  completed,  how- 
ever, some  excellent  roads  have  been  made  connecting 
the  town  with  this  eastern  sector,  and  now  lie  there, 
monuments  of  British  energy  in  valleys  that  are  once 
more  deserted.  Macedonia,  in  fact,  is  the  only  one 
of  the  world's  theatres  of  war  where  military  opera- 
tions have  done  more  good  than  harm.  We  have 
tamed  the  wilderness  and  civilised  the  waste,  reclaimed 
the  barren  and  opened  up  the  inaccessible.  Along 
steep  gorges  where  two  years  ago  a  laden  donkey 
could  hardly  find  a  path  there  now  winds  the  white 
ribbon  of  a  first-class  road  with  carefully  calculated 
gradients,  stone  bridges  and  culverts,  sign-posts, 
parapets  and  drainage-gutters,  and  big  English 
motor-cars  travel  at  speed  where  even  the  plodding 
peasant  used  to  make  his  way  with  difficulty. 

But  in  the  early  days,  before  these  means  of  com- 
munication existed.,  and  when  an  attack  was  possible  at 


THE  "BIRD-CAGE"  67 

any  moment,  the  principle  that  had  to  be  kept  in  view 
for  this  right-hand  sector  of  the  line  was  that  too 
many  troops  should  not  be  immobilised  there  as  a  per- 
manent garrison,  for  they  might  be  needed  to  reinforce 
some  other  part  of  the  long  perimeter.  So  the  system 
then  adopted  was  to  have  at  the  Stavros  end  of  the 
defences  a  series  of  fortified  posts  capable  of  stopping 
a  weak  enemy  attack  and  of  keeping  alert  watch  and 
ward.  Behind  these  outposts  was  a  stronger  line  upon 
which  reserves  from  Salonica  could  be  concentrated  to 
offer  stouter  resistance  in  case  the  enemy  attack 
should  develop  into  a  serious  one. 

The  next  sector  westwards  of  the  Salonica  lines 
was  a  very  important  one  because  into  it  runs  the 
Seres  road,  which  comes  down  from  the  Struma  valley 
and  was  the  most  convenient  route  for  the  enemy  to 
use  for  his  siege  artillery  and  transport.  The  road 
entered  the  entrenched  camp  at  the  village  of  Aivatli, 
only  eight  miles  from  Salonica,  a  point  that  was 
strongly  fortified  by  a  Scottish  brigade.  Fortu- 
nately,— as  regards  a  hostile  attack,  though  later  on 
the  disadvantage  of  it  was  felt  keenly  by  ourselves, — 
the  Seres  road  has  no  railway  running  alongside  it,  and 
for  the  last  ten  miles  of  its  approach  to  our  lines  it 
crosses  a  perfectly  flat  plain  which  our  positions  on 
the  hills  completely  dominate. 

One  used  to  ride  about  on  those  heights  and  imagine 
the  wonderful  spectacle  that  would  be  seen  from  there 
if  the  enemy  ever  did  come  down  to  the  attack.  The 
broad  flat  plain  stretched  away  from  below  your  feet 
till  it  faded  into  the  winter  mists,  out  of  which  rose 
the  first  of  the  four  parallel  hill-ranges  that  cross  the 
road  to  Seres  and  make  the  journey  to  or  from  the 


68          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

Struma  a  weary  switchback  of  steep  ridges  and  deep 
valleys.  It  was  like  looking  from  the  battlements  of 
a  mediaeval  castle,  and  the  enemy  would  have  been 
able  to  conceal  nothing  from  your  view.  With  field- 
glasses  you  could  have  watched  his  camps  and  depots 
beyond  the  reach  even  of  our  naval  guns.  In  fact,  had 
the  Bulgarians  advanced  on  Salonica  we  should  have 
been  in  exactly  the  same  position  towards  them  as  the 
Turks  at  Achi-Baba  occupied  with  regard  to  us. 

With  such  a  field  of  fire  in  front  of  your  defences 
the  question  was  more  than  usually  debatable  whether 
or  not  advanced  positions  should  be  occupied.  I 
will  not  say  what  conclusion  was  come  to,  nor 
whether,  among  other  possible  advanced  posts,  it  was 
decided  to  hold  that  conspicuous  and  inconvenient 
height  of  "  Gibraltar,"  which  towers,  a  lonely  land- 
mark for  miles  round,  out  of  the  desolate  flat  plain 
I  have  just  been  describing. 

Gibraltar  lay  too  far  out  for  it  to  be  included  in 
our  main  line.  Its  shape  is  indicated  by  its  nickname ; 
it  is  an  isolated  barren,  treeless  hill,  that  falls  almost 
sheer  on  one  side. 

The  remaining  sector  of  the  Salonica  lines,  lying 
between  the  Galliko  and  Vardar  rivers,  is  on  a  rolling 
plain.  The  French  put  a  vast  amount  of  work  into 
fortifying  this  sector.  There  are  cemented  machine- 
gun  emplacements,  dugouts  of  unusual  depth  and 
solidity,  broad  bands  of  wire  twisting  everywhere 
across  the  grass,  and  forming  compartments  each 
swept  by  cross-fire  from  the  flanks,  so  that  a  break- 
through at  any  point  would  only  mean  penetration 
into  more  formidable  defences  beyond.  Behind  the 
line,  too,  are  many  ravines,  which  provide  natural 


THE  "  BIRD-CAGE  "  69 

shelter  for  ammunition  dumps,  and  further  back  there 
are,  of  course,  whole  systems  of  reserve  trenches. 

The  circumstance  which  made  all  these  works  so 
strong  was  that  they  were  constructed,  not  only  with 
all  the  experience  of  modern  warfare  that  their 
designers  had  gained  in  France,  but  also  under  con- 
ditions of  absolute  peace.  The  scientific  ideas  under- 
lying the  plan  of  the  defences  were  accordingly  able 
to  be  developed  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection,  the 
second  line  not  being  the  haphazard  product  of  the 
varying  fortunes  of  battle,  but  made  to  correspond 
fully  to  the  tactical  needs  of  the  first.  In  fact,  the 
defences  of  Salonica  may  be  regarded  as  some  of  the 
most  formidable  in  the  world. 


CHAPTER  V 

GETTING  READY;  AND  INCIDENTS  OF 
THE  SPRING 

A  I?  the  same  time  as  this  vast  scheme  of  defence 
was  being  carried  out,  the  network  of  roads 
with  which  we  have  changed  the  face  of 
Macedonia  was  being  steadily  woven.  You  best  real- 
ise the  immense  extent  of  the  system  of  highways  with 
which  the  Allies  have  endowed  the  deserted  hinter- 
land of  Salonica  when  you  fly  above  it  in  an  aeroplane. 
Main  roads,  meshed  like  a  spider's  web  below  you,  run 
for  miles  in  directions  where  before  we  came  there 
was  not  even  a  goat-track.  Often  they  take  the  form 
of  a  broad  ledge  blasted  out  of  the  sheer  rock.  There 
are  bridges  that  will  support  a  three-ton  motor-lorry 
over  every  torrent;  there  are  stone  culverts  to  carry 
off  the  spates  of  spring. 

You  will  notice  artesian  wells  that  pump  water 
by  the  thousand  gallons  an  hour;  and  supply-dumps 
with  their  mountains  of  yellow  packing-cases.  As  for 
buildings  in  corrugated  iron  of  every  sort,  from  bath- 
houses to  general  hospitals,  there  is  a  townful  of  them. 
And  this  scene,  though  densest  and  largest  around 
Salonica,  is  reproduced  on  smaller  scales  at  several 
points  up-country  as  far  as  Corps  Headquarters  near 
the  front.  Every  feature  in  it  had  to  be  constructed 
from  the  beginning.  When  we  first  got  to  Salonica 
no  lighter  could  even  reach  the  shore  except  at  the 

70 


GETTING  READY  71 

Quay.  By  the  present  time,  there  are  twelve  piers 
at  which  unloading  is  almost  constantly  going  on. 
Where  the  Main  Supply  Base  now  stands, — a  dry, 
clean  expanse  of  gravel, — was  then  a  sort  of  Greek 
remount  lines,  just  a  fetid  mass  of  mud  and  manure, 
and  the  first  motor-lorry  that  ventured  along  what 
have  since  become  in  the  wettest  weather  firm,  hard 
roads  had  to  be  pulled  out  by  another  with  ropes, 
bogged  to  the  axles. 

Work, — any  amount  of  it, — and  all  of  it  work  that 
was  absolutely  preliminary  to  the  idea  of  undertaking 
operations.  You  cannot  begin  operations  in  the  field 
when  your  Main  Supply  Base  is  sinking  into  a  swamp, 
nor  when  there  is  not  a  road  in  the  country  capable  of 
bearing  up  under  the  Army's  motor-lorry  traffic  for 
two  wet  days  together.  We  had  first  to  build  up  the 
necessary  elements  of  modern  civilisation  in  Mace- 
donia before  we  could  begin  to  "  get  on  with  the  war." 

But  the  Salonica  Army  did  not  by  any  means  lose 
sight  of  the  enemy  while  these  necessary  defensive 
works  were  being  carried  out.  We  had  by  now  come 
to  an  arrangement  with  the  Greeks  about  moving  our 
troops  as  military  needs  required  into  the  region  be- 
tween Salonica  and  the  Greek  frontier,  and  mounted 
troops  with  their  headquarters  at  Kilkish  were  keep- 
ing daily  watch  upon  the  Bulgars  and  the  Germans  by 
Lake  Doiran,  and  eastwards  along  the  line  of  the 
Krusha-Balkan.  I  spent  some  time  with  them  going 
out  with  their  patrols,  which  played  a  game  of  hide- 
and-seek, — the  "  seek  "  chiefly  on  our  side, — with  the 
German  Uhlan  cavalry,  who  were  reciprocally  full  of 
inquisitiveness  about  us.  A  lovely  country  for  the 
Balkans  was  this  debatable  land  into  which  we  rode, 


72          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

a  region  of  wooded,  irregular  hills,  from  whose  heights 
could  be  seen  mile  upon  mile  of  the  Struma  plain  with 
its  shining  river  on  the  one  side,  and  the  hilly  country 
beyond  Lake  Doiran  on  the  other.  At  such  look-outs 
as  the  Gola  ridge,  to  which  patrols,  both  of  the  Ger- 
mans and  ourselves,  went  every  day,  always  trying  to 
ambush  each  other,  you  could  sit  among  the  bushes 
and  through  your  glasses  watch  life  in  the  enemy's 
lines  as  comfortably  as  from  a  grand-stand.  Here, 
down  the  same  Strumnitza  road  as  the  10th  Division 
went  up  into  Serbia  in  November,  1915,  comes  a  Ger- 
man motor-car,  making  for  Doiran  town,  which  lies 
below  you  by  the  side  of  its  black,  Norwegian-looking 
lake.  There  are  convoys  of  pack-animals,  too,  heading 
for  that  supply-dump  where  piled  tin  cases  lie  flashing 
in  the  sun  like  heliographs.  It  was  just  the  sort  of 
view  as  you  may  have  from  the  North  Downs  of  an 
English  main  road  on  a  summer's  day.  Occasionally 
the  French  would  send  up  a  couple  of  8-inch  guns, 
mounted  on  an  armoured  train  to  steam  along  the 
Karasuli-Kilindir  loop-line  and  disturb  these  peaceful 
enemy  activities,  and  one  feature  of  the  scene  in  con- 
sequence was  always  a  German  observation-balloon, 
looking  like  a  ghostly  grub  in  the  sky,  as  it  hung 
there  on  the  look-out  for  the  flashes  of  this  elusive 
artillery,  which  always  opened  fire  from  a  different 
place. 

Meanwhile,  the  infantry  back  in  the  Salonica  area 
was  smartening  up  its  soldierly  qualities  again  after 
three  months  of  digging  by  carrying  out  brigade- 
route  marches  with  tactical  exercises  on  the  way.  The 
change  was  a  welcome  one  from  the  confinement  of  the 
narrow  gullies  into  which  the  men  had  been  tucked 


GETTING  READY  73 

away  for  the  last  four  months  while  they  carved  end- 
less trenches  in  Salonica's  stony  rampart  of  hills,  and 
they  marched  out  of  the  gaps  in  the  wire  as  gaily  as 
boys  on  a  holiday.  For  while  no  soldiers  dig  better 
than  the  British,  none  hate  it  more. 

The  day's  programme  of  twenty  miles  of  foot- 
slogging  under  a  hot  sun  in  a  permanent  fog  of  white 
dust,  each  man  with  a  heavy  pack  on  his  back  and  a 
separate  halo  of  flies  round  his  head,  could  hardly  be 
called  relaxation,  but  the  relief  from  the  drudgery  of 
swinging  pick  and  shovel  was  enough  to  make  the 
labour  a  delight.  I  used  to  find  great  pleasure  myself 
in  accompanying  these  route-marches  (I  admit  that  it 
might  have  been  otherwise  if  I  had  not  had  a  horse 
to  do  them  on),  but  this  gratification  was  derived 
chiefly  from  watching  the  men.  The  war  was  only 
twenty  months  old,  but  how  much  in  the  way  of  bigger 
muscles  and  broader  chests  it  had  put  onto  the  frames 
of  these  soldiers,  I  do  not  know.  I  am  certain,  though, 
that  the  result  of  their  training  at  home  and  in  France, 
followed  by  six  months  of  good  food,  fresh  air  and 
daily  digging  out  here,  was  that  a  heftier,  healthier 
set  of  men  you  could  have  found  nowhere,  and  that  the 
towns  from  which  they  came  would  not  have  recog- 
nised them  from  the  slim-built  clerks  and  the  shop- 
assistants  and  the  pale-faced  artisans  that  they  once 
were  and  would  still  have  been,  if  the  war  had  not 
called  them.  There  were  battalions  like  one  of  the 
Wiltshires,  which  would  march  a  thousand  strong  all 
day  and  not  a  single  man  fall  out. 

It  is  a  picturesque  scene,  too,  as  the  brigade 
marches  onto  the  ground  where  it  is  to  bivouac  for  the 
night.  In  half-an-hour  you  will  see  an  empty  dell  or  a 


74          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

deserted  hillside  changed  into  a  busy  military  town 
with  its  appointed  districts  each  set  out  in  regular 
streets  of  little  shelter-tents,  its  fixed  drinking  and 
washing  places,  its  cook-house  fires  burning,  its  own 
hospital  established  in  a  big  marquee,  its  headquarters 
mess-table  set  up  and  laid  and  its  own  telephone  and 
telegraph  office  sending  and  receiving  messages  inces- 
santly. The  staff -captain  who  rode  ahead  to  choose 
its  site  works  his  miracle  even  quicker  than  the  genie  of 
the  Arabian  Nights,  who  needed  from  sunset  to  sun- 
rise to  raise  his  magic  city  in  the  desert. 

And  if  you  spend  a  night  like  this  with  a  British  bri- 
gade on  the  march  you  realise  how  it  is  that  our  Army 
keeps  in  war  that  look  of  freshness  and  smartness 
that  characterises  it  in  peace.  The  British  soldier  as 
regards  his  personal  habits  is  probably  the  cleanest  in 
the  world.  No  matter  how  footsore  the  men  may  be, 
no  matter  how  exhausted  by  their  long,  heavy-laden 
tramp  in  the  sweltering  heat,  the  first  thing  they  do 
after  getting  their  equipment  off  and  their  bivouac 
set  up  is  to  take  their  towel  from  their  haversack  and 
make  for  the  nearest  stream.  The  sentries  posted  to 
fix  the  limits  of  the  washing-places  have  all  they  can 
do  to  regulate  the  rush.  In  a  few  minutes  there  are, 
first  dozens,  then  hundreds  of  men,  standing  most  of 
them  stark  naked  by  the  waterside,  washing  them- 
selves from  head  to  foot.  I  have  seen  a  good  many 
civilians  at  home  who  ought  to  be  taken  to  see  British 
soldiers  wash.  It  is  a  lesson  in  thoroughness.  Face 
and  neck  and  scalp  disappear  under  a  thick  layer  of 
lather  and  are  scrubbed  and  rubbed  and  scoured  with 
almost  vindictive  energy,  as  if  they  were  so  much  har- 
ness being  polished.  Then,  after  a  tremendous 


GETTING  READY  75 

slooshing  with  water,  the  head  vanishes  again  into  the 
folds  of  a  towel  so  rough  that  it  might  be  made  up 
into  hair-shirts  for  anchorites,  and  finally,  with  much 
blowing  and  panting,  the  man  emerges,  clean,  fresh, 
content,  with  a  face  as  red  as  a  poppy  and  as  glisten- 
ing as  the  morning. 

Uneasy  at  the  preparations  the  Allies  were  making 
in  the  Balkans,  though  affecting  to  mock  at  Salonica 
as  his  "  biggest  internment  camp,"  the  enemy  tried  to 
perturb  us  and  perhaps  raise  trouble  through  arousing 
the  fears  of  the  civilian  population  by  carrying  out 
night  air-raids  on  our  base  at  Salonica.  Aeroplanes 
came  once  at  dawn  in  March  and  turned  to  and  fro 
over  the  centre  of  the  town  dropping  bombs.  But  they 
lost  three,  if  not  four,  machines  on  their  way  back.  A 
Zeppelin  also  made  a  successful  raid  on  February  1st 
and  set  a  warehouse  belonging  to  the  Bank  of  Salonica 
on  fire,  besides  killing  several  civilians. 

But  the  second  visit  of  the  same  Zeppelin  to  Sa- 
lonica, after  several  unsuccessful  attempts  to  return 
there,  led  to  its  destruction.  In  the  small  hours  of 
May  6th  the  town  was  awakened  by  the  crash  of  anti- 
aircraft guns  from  the  hills  behind  and  from  the  ships 
in  the  harbour,  and  there,  floating  yellow  in  the  glare 
of  the  searchlights  over  the  heart  of  Salonica,  was  a 
Zeppelin,  the  first  the  townspeople  had  set  eyes  upon. 
A  characteristically  silly  panic  started,  the  people 
rushing  out  of  their  houses,  and  scurrying  in  contrary 
directions  along  the  streets.  The  Zeppelin  made  for 
the  harbour  as  if  to  bomb  the  warships  there.  At 
first  it  was  too  vertically  above  them  for  the  naval 
gunners  to  fire,  but  a  moment  later  the  airship  altered 
course,  and  a  12-pounder  mounted  on  a  high  carriage 


76          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

on  the  forward  bridge  of  H.M.S.  "Agamemnon" 
brought  it  down  in  a  long  slant  onto  the  marshes  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Vardar,  where,  a  moment  after  it  had 
touched,  the  Zeppelin  burst  into  flames.  A  startling, 
long-drawn-out  cheer  rang  from  the  silent  English 
and  French  warships  at  the  sight  and  echoed  through 
the  darkness  across  the  frightened  town. 

It  was  the  Zeppelin's  crew  who  had  set  fire  to  it 
when  it  stranded,  and  they  tried  afterwards  to  escape 
through  the  swamps  around;  they  were  rounded  up 
though  next  morning  by  French  cavalry  as  they  were 
drying  their  drenched  clothes  in  the  sun.  The  prison- 
ers' account  of  themselves  was  that  the  Zeppelin  had 
come  from  Temesvar  in  Hungary;  it  had  previously 
carried  out  raids  on  Riga,  Dvinsk  and  Minsk  in  Rus- 
sia. It  Was  200  yards  long  and  had  four  6-cylinder 
engines.  It  had  been  launched  in  the  second  half  of 
1915.  I  myself  found  a  pencilled  inscription  on  the 
aluminum  framework  of  the  nose,  reading,  "  Pots- 
dam, August  llth,  1915,"  which  must  have  been  a 
date  when  it  was  under  construction.  The  crew  said 
that  they  were  astonished  at  the  way  they  had  been 
picked  up  by  our  anti-aircraft  batteries  and  followed 
all  down  the  line  to  Salonica.  By  the  time  they  got 
there  they  were  so  blinded  by  the  glare  of  the  search- 
lights converging  on  them  that  they  could  not  see  to 
drop  their  bombs. 

Directly  the  Zeppelin  came  down  a  British  torpedo 
boat  patrolling  on  the  boom  landed  a  party  to  arrest 
the  crew,  if  they  could  be  found,  and  bring  away  any- 
thing of  importance  from  the  wreck.  After  an  acci- 
dental encounter  among  the  dense  reeds  between  one 
detachment  and  another,  in  which  each  thought  it 


THE  STEEP  TRACKS  UP  WHICH  ALL  AMMUNITION, 
SUPPLIES  AND  WATER  HAVE  TO  BE  CARRIED  TO 
MUCH  OF  OUR  FRONT  LINE. 


GETTING  READY  77 

had  found  the  enemy  and  the  first  imperiously  called 
"Hands  up!"  to  which  the  second  immediately  re- 
joined, "Hands  up  yourselves,  you  blighters;  we've 
been  looking  for  you  all  morning,"  they  reached  the 
wreck  and  there  found  a  German  naval  war-flag  hang- 
ing from  the  stern,  undamaged  by  the  fire.  This 
ensign  of  the  Zeppelin  which  H.M.S.  "  Agamemnon  " 
finally  brought  down, — whether  it  had  been  previously 
hit  or  not, — now  finds  a  place  in  the  War-Museum 
at  the  Invalides  in  Paris.  But  the  "  Agamemnon's  " 
have,  as  a  consolation,  one  of  the  propellers  of  the 
Zeppelin  hanging  on  the  wall  of  the  Captain's  quar- 
ters in  memory  of  their  exploit. 

I  went  out  to  the  wreck  early  next  day.  It  was  a 
strenuous  journey.  The  shoalwater  of  the  Vardar 
mouth  is  too  shallow  for  even  a  rowing-boat  to  ap- 
proach the  shore,  and  when  you  have  waded  to  the 
bank,  you  find  that  you  must  still  go  knee-deep  in 
water  for  a  mile  or  so  with  the  reeds  meeting  above 
your  head.  A  Canadian  medical  officer  was  even 
drowned  trying  to  reach  the  wreck  on  horseback. 

One  would  never  have  believed  it  possible  that  a 
single  Zeppelin  would  carve  up  into  so  many  souvenirs 
as  that  one  did.  Amid  the  harassed  protests  of  its 
French  guard,  English  officers,  sailors,  even  nurses 
who  had  made  the  muddy  and  exhausting  journey, 
would  hack  and  twist  at  the  broken  framework  for 
days  afterwards,  yet  when  later  on  it  was  officially  cut 
up  and  removed,  several  barge-loads  of  fragments  still 
remained. 

Rumours,  that  are  always  more  popular  when  they 
are  grisly,  alleged  that  two  men  of  the  crew  had 
been  pinned  underneath  the  wreck  and  burned  alive. 


78          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

A  midshipman,  in  fact,  burrowing  in  the  mud,  even 
found  what  he  proclaimed  in  triumph  to  be  a  "  charred 
human  hand."  It  certainly  had  that  shape.  Though 
blackened  by  fire  and  covered  with  ooze,  the  form  of 
the  clutching  fingers  could  be  clearly  seen.  Their 
crooked  grasp  seemed  to  have  been  straining  in  a  last 
agony  for  something  solid  to  seize  upon  amid  the 
spongy  slime.  The  grim  trophy  was  bottled  in  spirits 
of  wine  and  much  admired,  until  one  day  its  owner 
consented,  at  the  entreaty  of  a  friend,  to  cede  him  one 
finger  of  the  blackened  relic.  The  ship's  surgeon 
was  asked  to  perform  the  operation  of  severing  the 
finger,  but,  to  the  surprise  of  every  one,  his  knife 
sliced  through  it  at  one  cut.  It  then  transpired  that 
the  clutching  hand  of  the  burnt  Boche  was  nothing 
more  gruesome  than  an  empty  glove  singed  by  the 
flames  and  tight-filled  with  caked  mud. 


CHAPTER  VI 

OURSELVES  AND  THE  GREEKS:  RELA- 
TIONS AT  SALONICA 


story  of  our  relations  with  the  Greeks  is 
a  great  part  of  the  whole  history  of  the  Balkan 
campaign.    Our  extraordinary  situation  made 
that  inevitable.    There  we  were,  fighting  on  neutral 
territory  to  which  we  had  come  by  invitation  from 
the  national  Government,  —  that  must  never  be  forgot- 
ten, —  but  where,  owing  to  a  subsequent  unconstitu- 
tional change  of  that  Government,  we  found  ourselves 
thoroughly  unwelcome  guests,  and  had  to  consider  our 
hosts  as  also  our  secret  enemies. 

It  was  never  fully  realised  at  home  how  much  the 
Greeks  did  hamper  us  during  the  first  part  of  the  Bal- 
kan campaign,  not  so  much  by  what  they  did  as  by 
what  they  might  do.  They  interfered  with  us  actively 
in  petty  details,  —  until  General  Sarrail  proclaimed 
martial  law  and  took  over  the  administration  of  the 
Army  area,  —  and  they  were  always  a  threat  and  an 
obsession  in  the  larger  matters  of  politics  and  strategy. 
The  criticism  at  home  was  :  "  Why  don't  you  get  on 
with  your  war  against  the  Bulgars  and  stop  bothering 
about  these  insignificant  Greeks?"  The  answer  to 
that  is  that  when  you  have  got  any  job  of  work  to 
do  and  all  the  time  have  behind  you  a  man  who  is,  or 
whom  you  believe  to  be,  about  to  stab  you  in  the  back 
as  soon  as  you  get  well  into  it,  you  cannot  help  your 

79 


80          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

attention  being  distracted  from  your  principal  occu- 
pation. 

The  trouble  was  that  the  Allied  Army  in  the  Orient 
could  do  nothing  to  clear  up  the  situation  and  get  a 
firm,  sure  base  to  work  on  until  their  Governments  at 
home  gave  their  consent.  And  the  Allied  Govern- 
ments, being  made  up  of  men  who  have  never  been  to 
the  Balkans  and  are  consequently  quite  unacquainted 
with  the  special  mentality  of  the  Balkan  peoples,  have 
always  fallen  into  the  natural  mistake  of  considering 
Greece  and  other  Balkan  states  as  being  replicas  on 
a  smaller  scale  of  the  big  Western  European  nations, 
swayed  by  the  same  considerations,  governed  by  the 
same  motives,  looking  at  things  from  the  same  angle. 
Of  course,  that  is  not  so,  but  hence  very  many  of  our 
mistakes  in  that  part  of  the  world. 

You  really  need  to  have  been  to  Salonica  to  realise 
what  a  nuisance  and  a  danger  the  Greeks  were  to  us 
until  M.  Venizelos  improved  things  by  his  revolution. 
I  could  give  a  long  list  of  instances,  but  that  would  not 
convey  a  full  impression.  It  was  a  sneaking,  under- 
hand hostility  that  King  Constantine's  officers  and  offi- 
cials practised.  Outwardly  they  were  correct  and 
coldly  courteous,  but  many  of  the  chief  of  them  were 
working  deliberately  for  the  Germans  against  us  all 
the  time,  and  you  felt  the  atmosphere  of  enmity  in 
your  bones. 

A  simple  parable  will  perhaps  convey,  as  well  as 
anything,  an  idea  of  the  situation  we  found  on  arriving 
at  Salonica.  Imagine  that  you  were  a  Parliamentary 
candidate  going  down  to  fight  an  election  in  a  town 
where  there  is  only  one  possible  hotel.  The  manager 
of  this  hotel,  who  is  a  friend  of  yours,  and  a  thorough 


OURSELVES  AND  THE  GREEKS       81 

adherent  of  your  party,  offers  you  a  set  of  rooms  at 
the  hotel  and  you  take  the  offer.  The  manager  prom- 
ises, too,  to  help  in  every  way  he  can  with  your  cam- 
paign. Just  as  you  are  arriving,  and  when  all  your 
arrangements  have  been  made,  you  learn  that  the 
managing  director  of  the  hotel,  who  is  a  bitter  oppo- 
nent of  your  political  party  and  devoted  to  the  other 
side,  is  furious  that  his  manager  has  let  you  the  rooms 
and  has  dismissed  him  in  consequence.  It  is  too  late 
for  him  to  prevent  you  taking  the  accommodation  that 
you  were  offered,  but  the  managing  director  gives 
strict  orders  to  his  staff  to  make  you  just  as  uncom- 
fortable as  they  can.  They  will  not  answer  the  bell; 
they  cut  off  the  light  and  water;  they  will  not  serve 
you  with  food  in  the  hotel,  on  the  plea  that  there  would 
otherwise  not  be  enough  for  the  other  guests;  they 
open  and  read  your  letters ;  they  spy  upon  you  in  every 
way;  they  communicate  your  plans  to  your  political 
opponent  so  that  he  can  anticipate  them;  and,  the 
election  becoming  a  rowdy  one,  you  receive  informa- 
tion that  the  managing  director  has  the  intention  on 
the  first  occasion  that  you  try  to  address  the  crowd 
from  the  balcony  to  have  you  sandbagged  from  behind. 
Now,  under  those  circumstances,  who  could  give  full 
and  undivided  attention  to  fighting  the  election  and 
refuting  the  political  arguments  of  his  opponent; 
who  would  not  be  at  the  same  time  very  much  pre- 
occupied in  taking  precautions  against  the  trouble- 
some managing  director  of  the  hotel? 

We  have  had  two  kinds  of  relations  with  the 
Greeks, — local  commercial  relations,  which  have  been, 
needless  to  say,  exceedingly  profitable  to  them  (and 
in  the  term  Greeks,  I  include  the  large  Hebrew  popu- 


82  THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

lation  of  Salonica,  which  is  of  Greek  nationality) ,  and 
the  larger  political  relations  of  which  the  chief  land- 
marks have  been  the  proclamation  of  martial  law  at 
Salonica  in  June,  1916,  the  "  Salonica  Revolution  " 
of  August,  the  coming  of  M.  Venizelos  to  Salonica  in 
October,  and  finally  the  occupation  of  Thessaly  and 
the  expulsion  of  King  Constantine  in  June,  1917. 

The  arrival  of  the  Allies  and  especially  of  the  Eng- 
lish at  Salonica  was  the  sort  of  opportunity  for  money- 
making  that  the  local  Greek  and  Israelite  population 
could  not  have  surpassed  in  their  wildest  dreams.  We 
came,  bringing  practically  unlimited  money,  and  need- 
ing whatever  could  be  bought  locally,  so  as  to  save 
the  delays  and  risks  of  sea-transport.  The  trade  of 
Salonica,  which  had  gone  steadily  down  since  the  day 
when  it  passed  from  the  Turks  to  the  Greeks,  and  the 
town  at  the  same  time  lost  its  ancient  and  natural 
hinterland  of  the  whole  of  Macedonia,  free  of  customs- 
barriers,  has  revived  and  increased,  since  our  coming, 
to  proportions  of  artificial  magnitude.  Men  who  were 
on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy  are  now  rich.  The  Greek 
or  the  Jew  trader  who  counted  himself  lucky  to  make, 
say,  £800  or  <£l,000  in  the  twelve  months,  at  present 
makes  <£  10,000  and  will  doubtless  continue  to  make  it 
as  long  as  the  Allies  are  there.  Prices  are  very  high ; 
profits  are  very  large.  Rubbish  has  sold  at  the  price 
of  first-class  European  goods  because  the  difficulties 
of  transport  have  prevented  English  firms  from  get- 
ting consignments  out  to  Salonica.  The  attitude  of 
the  local  trader  towards  the  Allied  troops  in  their 
private  purchases  has  been  "  take  it  at  the  price  or 
leave  it." 

As  for  house-rents,  they  rose  in  one  bound  on  our 


OURSELVES  AND  THE  GREEKS  83 

arrival  to  the  same  scale  as  the  best  parts  of  the  West- 
end  of  London.  This  is  due  partly  to  the  limited 
number  of  even  approximately  modern  hotels  and 
houses,  and  the  consequent  competition  of  the  Staffs 
of  the  various  contingents  of  the  Allied  Armies  to 
secure  them,  and  also  to  the  fact  that  when  we  arrived 
in  Salonica  no  one  expected  that  we  should  still  be 
there  two  years  later.  I  think  the  general  belief  at 
that  time  was  that  we  should  either  have  got  on  or 
got  out  before  the  autumn  of  1917.  Accordingly  there 
seemed  small  reason  for  any  effort  to  alter  the  tradi- 
tion of  open-handedness  which  has  always  distin- 
guished the  British  Government  in  its  dealings  with 
foreigners  and  neutrals.  Moreover,  the  officers  who 
had,  at  very  short  notice,  to  secure  accommodation 
for  Army  Headquarters,  were  perhaps  not  all  of  them 
experienced  in  the  Oriental  method  of  bargaining,  the 
recognised  principle  of  which  is  that  the  seller  begins 
by  demanding  twice  as  much  as  he  is  willing  to  take, 
while  the  buyer  responds  by  offering  half  as  much  as 
he  is  prepared  to  give.  When  the  Greek  or  Hebrew 
proprietor  of  a  jerry-built  villa,  of  most  inadequate 
sanitation,  explained  with  an  abundance  of  reasons, 
and  an  air  of  great  finality  that  he  could  not  let  it 
furnished  (it  is  a  definite  case  that  I  am  referring  to) 
for  six  months  for  less  than  £800,  a  straightforward 
English  officer,  unaccustomed  to  guile,  and  hating  a 
haggle,  would  incline  to  take  him  at  his  word,  and 
cursing  him  in  his  heart,  or  even  openly,  for  a  thief, 
would  sign  the  contract,  to  the  astonishment  and  satis- 
faction of  the  Levantine  proprietor. 

To  give  one  concrete  instance  of  the  way  in  which 
the  inhabitants  of  Salonica  deliberately  blackmailed 


84          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

our  Army  by  refusing  to  let  buildings  except  at  an 
iniquitous  rental, — there  is  a  two-storied  villa  standing 
in  the  main  residential  street  of  Salonica;  it  is  cer- 
tainly passably  furnished,  and  has  a  shady  garden 
round  it.  It  affords  accommodation,  I  believe,  on 
its  two  floors,  for  fourteen  officers  and  their  batmen, 
and  the  price  the  army  has  had  to  pay  for  it,  furnished, 
is  £200  a  month,  or  just  about  twelve  times  its  rent 
under  normal  conditions.  For  a  hotel  of  thirty-two 
rooms  needed  for  the  sleeping-accommodation  of  cer- 
tain officers  at  the  base,  12,000  drachmas,  or  about 
£490  a  month,  was  exacted.  Nor  was  this  profiteering 
confined  to  individuals.  Public  bodies  took  advantage 
of  the  boom.  For  a  Greek  orphanage,  needed  as  the 
nucleus  of  a  General  Hospital  (it  would  only  hold  500 
beds) ,  we  had  to  pay  rent  at  the  rate  of  £9,000  a  year, 
and  then  spend  between  £5,000  and  £10,000  on  fill- 
ing up  the  existing  cesspools  and  draining  it  to  the 
sea. 

Such  establishments  as  Floca's  Cafe  and  the  White 
Tower  restaurant  and  cabaret  have,  of  course,  made 
fortunes  for  their  very  wide-awake  proprietors.  My 
memory  of  Floca's  from  visits  to  Salonica  be- 
fore the  war  is  of  a  large  plateglass-sided  room, 
furnished  with  many  chairs  and  tables,  but  normally 
containing  not  more  than  a  score  of  Greeks  or  Jews, 
who  had  met  there  to  discuss  business  deals  while 
twiddling  their  inevitable  strings  of  beads.  None 
of  them,  though  they  might  remain  two  hours, 
would  buy  more  than  a  cup  of  Turkish  coffee  (pre- 
war price  Id.),  or  a  "mastic"  (^>d.  more),  and 
even  with  that  they  would  demand  a  series  of 
plates  of  meze, — a  sort  of  hors-d'oeuvre,  consisting 


OURSELVES  AND  THE  GREEKS       85 

of  scraps  of  salt  fish,  olives  and  slices  of  sau- 
sage (thrown  in  free  before  the  war).  The  more 
frugal-minded  would  content  themselves  with  a  glass 
of  water  (served  free).  Tips  were  unknown  to  the 
humble  waiters  of  Floca's  in  those  far-off  days.  Only 
on  Saturday  and  Sunday, — the  Jew  and  Christian 
Sabbaths, — would  there  be  an  affluence  of  expensively 
dressed  Levantine  ladies  from  the  Quartier  des  Cam- 
pagnes,  which  is  the  residential  suburb  of  Salonica, 
and  they  would  bring  custom  amounting  perhaps  to 
a  fourpenny  lemonade  or  a  fivepenny  ice,  but  as  they 
would  sit  over  it  from  teatime  till  dinner,  and  a  party 
of  five  secure  its  right  to  a  table  on  the  terrace  by 
giving  only  two  orders,. it  is  clear  that  the  amount  of 
the  receipts  necessary  to  make  Floca's  a  paying  con- 
cern under  normal  conditions  was  small. 

But  since  the  Allies  came,  Floca's  is  full  from  early 
morning,  when  officers  arriving  from  the  front  by 
overnight  trains  breakfast  there  (two  boiled  eggs,  Is. 
2d.;  coffee,  8d.;  bread,  4d.),  to  late  at  night  when  the 
last  liqueur-glass  with  a  generous  margin  of  air  at  the 
top  is  emptied  and  paid  for  at  80  centimes.  Several 
times  the  French  military  authorities  have  fallen  upon 
Floca's  and  it  has  been  consigne  (or  as  we  say,  put  out 
of  bounds)  for  charging  too  much  or  reducing  too 
considerably  the  size  of  the  portions  it  serves.  Then 
for  the  duration  of  the  order  the  cafe  that  is  normally 
thronged  with  officers  of  six  nationalities  on  town 
leave,  for  breakfast,  the  morning  refresher,  the  glass 
of  vermouth  before  luncheon,  the  liqueur  after 
luncheon,  tea  (sometimes  with  the  company  of  nurses 
to  swell  Floca  freres'  receipts) ,  the  aperitif  before  din- 
ner, the  liqueur  after  dinner,  and  the  final  beer  or 


86          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

whiskey-and-soda  before  turning  in,  is  reduced  to  a 
meagre  clientele  of  civilians.  But  as  soon  as  the  pro- 
hibition is  lifted  the  place  immediately  swarms  once 
more  with  customers  impatient  at  the  indifferent  serv- 
ice and  indignant  at  the  exaggerated  bill,  but  obliged 
to  go  there  because  it  is  the  only  rendezvous.  In 
passing,  one  may  say  that  the  fact  that  Floca's  is 
always  full  by  no  means  indicates  that  the  army  at 
Salonica  is  slack.  Floca's  has  a  constantly  changing 
set  of  patrons,  made  up  of  officers  down  from  -the 
front  on  three  days'  leave  (remember  that  there  is  far 
less  leave  home  from  Salonica  than  from  France) ,  and 
of  officers  arriving  with  drafts  and  quartered  for  a 
few  days  in  rest-camps  round  the  town. 

How  much  better  it  would  have  been  if  we  had 
taken  over  Salonica  on  a  business-like  basis  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Balkan  campaign,  and  regulated 
prices  on  a  just  scale  which  would  have  prevented  this 
flow  of  money  from  British  into  alien  pockets.  The 
Greeks  are  a  commercial  people.  It  would  have 
appealed  very  strongly  to  their  instincts  as  money- 
makers if  we  had  said  to  the  Greek  Government  as 
soon  as  the  expedition  was  decided  upon,  "  We  need 
Salonica  as  a  base;  we  must  have  full  control  of  its 
administration  while  the  sovereignty  remains  yours, 
the  revenues  are  collected  by  you  and  the  Greek  flag 
continues  to  fly.  For  this  undisturbed  control  we  will 
pay  you  a  rent  of  so  many  millions  a  year."  We 
could  then  have  gone  to  Salonica  as  to  an  Allied 
town.  Instead  of  having  to  pay  iniquitous  sums  with- 
out protest  for  fear  of  offending  neutral  feeling,  we 
could  have  requisitioned  whatever  we  needed  at  equi- 
table rates,  and  we  could  have  fixed  prices  on  a  pre- 


OURSELVES  AND  THE  GREEKS  87 

war  basis  with  due  allowance  for  increase  in  cost  of 
raw  materials.  This,  in  view  of  the  vast  augmentation 
of  business  that  we  brought,  would  still  have  left  a 
large  profit  to  the  traders,  while  we  should  have  been 
protected  against  the  corner-maker,  and  the  profiteer 
who  have  both  done  so  well  out  of  all  the  Allies. 

And  just  as  the  foregoing  was  being  written,  there 
comes  news  of  what  really  sounds  like  a  judgment 
upon  the  greed  of  Salonica.  Two-thirds  of  the  town 
within  the  walls  has  been  wiped  out  in  two  days  by  an 
extraordinary  conflagration.  The  business  section 
and  what  one  may  well  call  the  native  quarter  have 
entirely  disappeared.  Floca's,  the  Odeon,  the  Splen- 
did Palace,  the  Rue  Venizelos, — all  of  them  names 
that  had  gradually  become  as  familiar  to  scores  of 
Englishmen  in  the  Balkans  as  Giro's,  the  Empire,  the 
Savoy  and  the  Strand  are,  on  a  far  different  plane,  to 
Londoners, — exist  to-day  as  nothing  but  charred  and 
smoking  ruins.  The  Salonica  Club,  which  was  only 
saved  for  a  time  by  being  kept  practically  under  water 
by  the  converging  hydrants  of  the  Fleet  from  the  op- 
posite side  of  the  Quay,  was  the  last  building  to  suc- 
cumb. It  will  be  missed  more  than  any,  for  it  has  the 
only  comfortable  chairs  in  Salonica,  and  the  readiness 
with  which  it  opened  its  doors  to  Allied  visitors  was 
very  welcome.  The  loss  of  the  whole  of  the  shopping 
area  will  be  keenly  felt  by  officers  up-country,  for 
whom  the  town  was,  however  inadequately,  the  sole 
source  of  the  conveniences  of  life.  Salonica,  formerly 
the  solitary  outpost  of  civilisation  in  Macedonia,  now 
stands  as  desolate  as  any  muddy  village  of  the 
Balkans. 

Though  practically  all  our  military  establishments, 


88          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

being  outside  the  area  of  the  old  town,  were  unharmed 
by  the  fire,  this  disaster  must  nevertheless  hamper 
us  as  an  army  for  some  time  to  come.  To  begin  with, 
we  have,  at  the  time  of  writing,  some  60,000  of  the 
burnt-out  inhabitants  on  our  hands.  We  are  feeding 
them;  we  are  lodging  them,  and  the  energies  of  the 
Greek  Government  which  would  otherwise  have  been 
engaged  in  preparing  their  country  to  take  its  share 
in  our  Balkan  campaign,  will  now  be  occupied  for 
some  time  in  housing  and  equipping  these  destitute 
refugees.  The  town  can  only  be  said  to  have  brought 
the  disaster  on  itself.  Though  chiefly  built  of  wooden 
houses  its  fire  brigade  was  simply  Gilbertian, — a  wag 
once  suggested  in  the  Balkan  "  News  "  that  as  more 
water  escaped  out  of  the  leaks  in  the  hose  than  through 
the  nozzle  it  would  be  more  advantageous  to  lay  the 
pipe  sideways  on  to  the  fire.  And,  in  fact,  the  Salonica 
firemen  always  proved  themselves  incapable  of  coping 
with  the  most  trivial  house-burnings  unless  reinforced 
by  fire-parties  from  our  Fleet.  So  that  Salonica,  with 
the  huge  fortune  it  has  made  out  of  us  as  a  town, 
seems  only  rightly  punished  for  the  fickleness  of  its 
civic  organisation. 

As  a  spectacle,  the  conflagration  must  have  equalled 
Rome  burning.  The  part  of  the  town  destroyed  rises 
as  an  amphitheatre  within  the  still  complete  girdle  of 
its  mediaeval  walls.  Most  of  it  is  a  maze  of  rambling, 
crooked  little  alleys,  mysterious  and  picturesque.  The 
church  of  St.  Demetrius,  forcibly  converted  for  four 
and  a  half  centuries  of  Turkish  occupation  into  a 
mosque,  but  still  showing  faintly  on  its  walls  the 
stiff-figured  frescoes  that  artists  of  the  Eastern  Ro- 
man Empire  drew,  has  met  this  lurid  fate  at  the  end 


OURSELVES  AND  THE  GREEKS  89 

of  its  eventful  history.  Few  towns,  indeed,  have  had 
so  tumultuous  a  past  as  Salonica.  Sack  and  mas- 
sacre, siege  and  revolution,  war  and  civil  strife,  have 
all  convulsed  it  again  and  again.  It  has  been  left 
until  the  time  when  the  greatest  war  of  all  had 
brought  to  Salonica  Allied  troops  from  every  corner 
of  the  earth  for  the  most  historical  part  of  the  town  to 
find  destruction  in  the  flames. 

The  official  relations  of  the  Allies  with  the  Greeks, 
as  distinct  from  those  of  commercial  intercourse, 
were  characterised  from  our  first  landing  by  covert 
obstruction  on  the  part  of  the  royalist  authorities,  offi- 
cials and  administration  of  the  town.  Their  first 
action  was  to  interfere  with  the  free  choice  by  the 
Allies  of  encamping-sites  on  the  vast  area  of  waste 
land  which  surrounds  Salonica.  Thus  they  insisted 
on  apportioning  to  the  French  the  Zeitenlick  camp, 
which  was  notoriously  unhealthy  ground. 

Furthermore,  within  the  town,  when  we  began  to 
negotiate  for  houses  to  lodge  the  various  offices  of 
Army  Headquarters,  the  Greek  military  authorities 
would  requisition  them  to  prevent  our  getting  the 
accommodation,  and  when  they  heard  of  the  negotia- 
tions too  late  they  even  prosecuted  proprietors  for 
letting  their  property  without  official  sanction.  Part 
of  our  headquarters  was  consequently  lodged  in  most 
inconvenient  buildings,  which  had  to  be  changed  later 
on  when  circumstances  at  last  forced  General  Sarrail 
to  take  matters  more  into  his  own  hands.  When  the 
Allies  bought  foodstuffs  locally,  the  Greeks  would 
often  requisition  these  before  delivery,  and  once  they 
went  so  far  as  to  place  a  sentry  on  some  stores  that 
were  being  transferred  by  process  of  sale  from  the 


90          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

English  to  the  French  Army,  basing  their  action 
upon  some  technical  point.  Finally  the  Greek  Gov- 
ernment issued  an  order  that  no  foodstuffs  were  to 
be  sold  to  the  Allied  Armies  at  all,  an  order  which 
the  latter  made  no  attempt  to  go  behind.  The  object 
of  it  was  evident.  King  Constantine's  Government 
wished  to  deprive  us  of  the  advantage  of  finding 
ready-to-hand  in  Greece  any  of  the  stores  necessary 
for  our  campaign. 

But  the  scope  of  Greek  obstruction  extended  much 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  town.  The  Greek  Army, 
mobilised  on  a  war  footing,  lay  between  us  and  our 
enemy,  and  formed  a  tight  cordon  round  the  Allies  at 
Salonica.  Strong  posts  held  every  road,  at  a  distance 
from  the  town  that  was  in  some  places  of  only  five  or 
six  miles.  On  the  Seres  road,  until  at  least  the  end  of 
the  year,  the  Greek  Army  refused  to  allow  our  yeo- 
manry and  cyclist  patrols  to  go  beyond  the  Kar. 
Into  the  zone  beyond  their  rearward  outpost  line  the 
Greeks  forbade  even  a  mounted  reconnaissance  to 
enter.  This  obstruction  on  the  part  of  the  Greeks 
even  prevented  our  Staff  officers  for  some  time  from 
studying  the  ground  on  which  the  fortifications  of 
Salonica  would  have  later  to  be  constructed. 

The  railways,  of  course,  afforded  a  most  convenient 
opening  for  covert  interference.  When  the  French 
General  Staff  asked  the  Greek  authorities  for  railway- 
waggons  (on  hire,  be  it  always  understood),  they 
could  never  get  them  in  anything  like  the  quantity 
that  the  available  rolling-stock  could  have  provided, 
as  was  shown  by  the  fact  that  meanwhile  empty 
waggons  would  be  left  standing  in  stations  up  the 
line.  When  the  French  asked  for  three  hundred  they 


OURSELVES  AND  THE  GREEKS  91 

would  be  offered  forty-five,  and  if  flat  trucks  were 
needed  it  was  almost  certainly  covered  ones  that 
would  be  sent.  The  object  of  this  system  was  to 
delay  the  landing  and  transport  of  our  stores. 

Furthermore,  in  the  working  of  the  two  lines  we 
used  there  were  endless  delays.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  fact  that  we  were  in  a  neutral  country 
prevented  our  putting  them  under  military  manage- 
ment. The  Greek  personnel,  much  of  it  of  more  than 
doubtful  disposition  towards  the  Entente,  remained  at 
its  posts  to  assist  (or  hinder)  our  traffic  movement. 
Consequently,  the  line  during  the  operations  in  Serbia 
in  November  and  December,  1915,  never  carried  more 
than  six  to  eight  trains  a  day,  a  figure  which  would 
have  been  absurd  with  efficient  management.  And  as 
for  speed, — to  come  from  Guevgheli  to  Salonica 
(under  sixty  miles)  took  from  ten  to  twelve  hours. 
Two  derailments  occurred  under  this  Greek  control 
of  the  line,  both  rather  unaccountable,  both  capable 
of  gravely  hindering  our  retreat  from  Serbia.  Later 
on,  when  we  were  organising  our  base  at  Salonica, 
trucks  would  be  sent  as  if  by  chance  to  the  far  ends  of 
the  line, — Fiorina  or  Xanthe, — so  that  we  could  not 
get  hold  of  them  and  use  them,  while  they  would  be 
there  for  the  Bulgars  to  seize  immediately  they  crossed 
the  frontier,  should  they  advance.  In  the  same  way 
coal  would  be  transferred  from  the  depot  at  Salonica 
on  various  pretexts  to  points  up  the  line,  such  as  Fio- 
rina, where  the  Greek  prefect  of  the  town  was  later 
arrested  by  the  French  in  red-handed  conspiracy  with 
the  Germans  and  Bulgars  for  smuggling  supplies 
across  the  frontier  to  them. 

Whenever  we  wanted  to  make  use  of  Greek  tele- 


92          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

graph  lines,  the  habitual  reply  was  that  they  were 
needed  for  Greek  Government  purposes.  When  cir- 
cumstances admitted  of  our  establishing  a  parallel 
line  of  our  own  we  had  first  to  get  the  permission  of 
the  Greeks  to  do  so,  and  beyond  all  question 
telegraph  wires  of  the  French  General  Staff  were 
tapped  by  Greek  officers.  Allied  wireless  was  often 
jammed  so  that  the  warships  in  the  harbour  could  not 
get  messages  reporting  enemy  submarines. 

There  existed,  moreover,  in  the  early  days  at  Sa- 
lonica,  a  well-organised  system  of  official  espionage 
which  had  every  means  of  ascertaining  our  strength 
and  movement  and  communicating  the  information  it 
collected  to  quarters  that  beyond  doubt  passed  it  on  to 
the  enemy.  This  organisation  was  under  the  control 
of  Colonel  Messalas,  the  Greek  Base  Commandant 
at  Salonica.  He  used  to  send  in  his  reports  in  tripli- 
cate every  week,  one  to  the  Minister  of  War  at  Athens, 
one  to  the  King  and  the  other  direct  to  Queen  Sophie. 
No  one  can  doubt  that  these  reports  were  coded  and 
transmitted  by  wireless  to  the  German  General  Staff. 
One  of  the  first  acts  of  this  official  anti-Ally  organisa- 
tion was  to  remove  from  their  posts  all  the  French, 
Italian  and  other  pro- Ally  officials  employed  on  the 
railways  and  replace  them  by  Greeks  who  could  be 
trusted  to  obey  orders.  The  guards  on  goods-trains 
on  the  Macedonian  railways,  who  travel  in  a  sort  of 
little  sentry-box  fixed  onto  the  end  of  a  truck,  and 
rising  above  its  roof,  had  to  give  a  written  report 
after  every  journey  of  any  movement  of  troops  they 
had  seen,  or  any  military  works  they  had  noticed  in 
the  course  of  construction. 

Meanwhile,  with  our  characteristic  punctiliousness 


OURSELVES  AND  THE  GREEKS  93 

of  respect  for  the  right  of  neutrals,  we  agreed  to 
furnish  the  Greek  port  authorities  with  a  return  of  all 
the  material  we  landed  at  Salonica.  This  was  for  pur- 
poses of  estimation  of  the  dues  to  be  paid  on  it.  Of 
course,  our  Staff  protected  itself  as  far  as  possible  by 
using  vague  terms, — "  so  many  tons  of  artillery  ma- 
terial," "  so  many  tons  of  forage,"  and  so  on,  but  the 
Greeks  even  had  the  boldness  to  ask  for  details,  which, 
needless  to  say,  they  did  not  get,  and  after  some  time 
the  system  was  abolished,  being  replaced,  I  believe,  by 
one  based  on  averages. 

For  the  spy,  Salonica  is  Paradise.  He  thrives  and 
multiplies  there  like  a  microbe  in  jelly.  If  a  spy  had 
the  chance  of  creating  an  ideal  environment  to  work  in 
he  could  not  improve  upon  Salonica.  Imagine  a  town 
where  the  languages  commonly  and  regularly  spoken 
are  old  Spanish,  much  adulterated,  Greek,  Turk- 
ish, Italian,  Bulgarian,  Serb,  Roumanian,  and 
French;  where  every  one  has  changed  his  subjection 
at  least  once  during  the  last  five  years, — from  Turk- 
ish to  Greek, — and  where  before  that  several  thou- 
sands of  people  had  all  sorts  of  claims  to  European 
nationalities,  based  on  the  complicated  Turkish  system 
of  the  Capitulations  (under  which  one  brother  in  the 
same  family  would  be  "  French,"  another  "  English," 
another  "  Italian,"  perhaps  without  one  of  them  being 
able  to  speak  a  single  sentence  in  the  tongue  of  the 
nationality  he  claimed ;  where  the  old  part  of  the  town 
is  a  maze  of  densely  inhabited  alleys,  most  of  them 
without  names,  where  the  houses,  Turkish  fashion, 
present  usually  nothing  but  a  blind  wall  to  the  street, 
and  have  a  high-walled,  stout-doored  courtyard  in 
front  of  them ;  where  there  is  no  directory,  and  where 


94          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

the  people  living  in  a  street  have  no  dealings  with  or 
knowledge  of  other  people  living  in  the  same  street 
who  are  not  of  their  race,  language  and  religion ;  where 
you  are  up  against  the  traditional  Eastern  idea  of  the 
seclusion  of  women,  and  where  many  women, — Turks 
and  Dounmehs  (Mohammedans  of  Jewish  race),  al- 
ways go  veiled ;  where  there  is  an  unknown  number  of 
secret  underground  rooms  and  passages,  as  you  might 
expect  in  a  modern  town  built  on  the  ruins  of  an 
ancient  and  prosperous  city;  and  where  at  first  the 
local  authorities  of  the  place  were  not  at  all  ill-disposed 
towards  the  spy,  but  inclined  to  protect  him  if  pos- 
sible against  our  military  police;  where  many  of  the 
town's  richest  and  most  influential  inhabitants  had 
strong  personal  reasons  for  sympathising  with  the 
enemy, — Jewish  money-lenders  of  Salonica  held  mort- 
gages on  estates  in  Hungary  and  Austria,  and  the 
town  had  always  swarmed  with  Austrian  agents 
spreading  the  idea  that  its  future  prosperity  depended 
on  its  becoming  linked  with  Austria-Hungary  as  the 
outlet  of  the  Central  Empires  to  the  Mediterranean. 
Imagine  but  a  fraction  of  these  conditions,  and  you 
will  realise  something  of  how  easy  it  was  for  enemy 
agents  to  work  against  us  and  how  hard  it  was  for  our 
counter-spy  service  to  hunt  them  down. 

The  spies  of  Salonica  were  run  by  committees. 
Each  of  the  enemy  nationalities  had  its  committee, 
has  still,  very  likely, — and  these  employ  agents  on 
the  ingenious  secret-society  principle  by  which  each 
man  knows  only  two  others.  They  found  their  tools 
chiefly  among  the  civil  labourers  the  army  employed. 

I  went  out  several  times  with  the  military  police 
on  their  almost  nightly  work  of  arresting  spies.  The 


OURSELVES  AND  THE  GREEKS  95 

rendezvous  would  be  in  the  small  hours.  As  you 
reached  it  something  familiar  would  strike  you  in  the 
mere  attitudes  of  the  little  squad  of  khaki-clad  army 
policemen  waiting  in  the  shadow  at  the  street  corner, 
something  more  familiar  still  about  their  walk.  It 
was  the  deliberate  manner  of  the  London  constable, 
unmistakable  even  without  the  dignity  of  helmet  and 
blue,  for  many  of  the  P.M.'s  men  at  Salonica  have  had 
a  beat  in  the  Metropolitan  area. 

Strung  out  to  make  the  tramp  of  feet  less  notice- 
able in  the  silence,  the  party  would  make  its  way  up 
the  hill  into  the  old  town, — an  informer  as  guide,  fol- 
lowed by  the  P.M.  and  the  police.  The  dark  streets, 
twisting  about  on  the  hill  within  the  city  walls  are 
just  what  the  lanes  of  Tudor  London  must  have  been. 
Crooked  gables  lean  out  across  the  narrow  way,  and 
the  space  between  the  houses  on  either  side  widens 
and  narrows  after  the  haphazard  of  their  building. 
Rough,  slippery  cobbles  are  underfoot ;  an  open  drain 
trickles  along  the  edge  of  the  street.  Never  can 
you  see  for  more  than  twenty  yards  ahead,  and  the 
shadows  among  the  crazy  old  wooden  house-fronts, 
with  their  heavy  doors  and  iron-barred  windows,  are 
picked  out  only  by  a  feebly  flickering  little  oil-lamp 
here  and  there  along  the  walls. 

"  This  is  the  place,"  whispers  the  native  agent  who 
guides  the  party.  A  low  doorway  of  grey  wood, 
which  leads  evidently  into  the  small  courtyard  that 
separates  each  of  these  houses  from  the  street.  The 
heavy  hand  of  a  policeman  beats  a  tattoo  upon  it, 
that  soon  brings  a  gabble  of  frightened  Greek  or 
Turkish  from  within.  "  Open  quick,"  calls  an  officer 
in  reply  to  a  torrent  of  enquiries,  and  then,  "  Well, 


96          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

we  can't  give  him  time  to  get  away.  Just  push  the 
door  in,  one  of  you."  A  heave  from  the  shoulder  of  a 
fourteen-stone  policeman  sends  it  flying  with  a  crash, 
and  a  neat  little  stone-flagged  courtyard  with  a  syca- 
more tree  rustling  in  the  corner  and  the  blue-washed 
wall  of  a  house  on  the  other  side  lies  open  before  us. 
Figures  with  candles  in  their  hands  are  peering 
anxiously  out  of  the  doorway,  and  when  it  is  a  British 
uniform  that  steps  into  the  courtyard  a  wail  goes  up 
that  testifies  to  uneasy  consciences.  The  business  of 
making  the  arrest  is  soon  over.  "No  resistance  is 
offered.  It  would  so  clearly  be  futile. 

"  Is  Hakki  Mehmed  here?  "  Hakki  Mehmed  ad- 
mits his  identity  quite  unconcernedly.  The  Turks 
certainly  show  character  and  self-possession  under 
these  trying  circumstances.  They  never  raise  their 
voices  or  get  excited.  They  suggest,  as  one  gentle- 
man to  another,  that  the  privacy  of  their  harem  shall 
be  respected,  and  they  reassure  the  weeping  black- 
veiled  figures  who  crane  from  its  doorway  with  the 
confident  statement  that  they  will  certainly  be  back 
again  to-morrow.  Then  a  military  policeman  closes 
in  on  each  side  of  them  and  off  they  go.  Perhaps 
they  will  come  back,  as  they  say;  perhaps  penal  servi- 
tude in  Cairo  will  be  their  lot  before  they  see  the 
little  blue-walled  courtyard  again. 

Eerie  scenes,  some  of  those  that  are  lit  up  by  the 
native  oil-lamps  and  the  electric  torches  of  the  sol- 
diers in  these  high-walled  courtyards  in  the  heart  of 
old  Salonica.  Odd  galleries  and  gables  jut  out  above; 
there  is  a  quaint  old  wellhead  in  the  middle,  and 
though  the  women  are  shrouded  in  their  regulation 
black,  the  men  wear  padded  garments  of  brightly 


OURSELVES  AND  THE  GREEKS  97 

coloured  print,  half-way  between  a  frock-coat  and  a 
dressing-gown.  The  whole  household  sleeps  almost 
fully  dressed  on  the  low  cushion  divans  that  are  the 
only  furniture  in  the  whitewashed  carpetless  rooms. 
The  place  looks  clean  enough  at  the  first  glance,  but 
you  do  well  not  to  cross  its  threshold,  for  the  walls 
are  swarming  with  the  vermin  that  live  in  the  crannies 
of  the  century-old  woodwork.  And  some  strange  old 
figures  totter  out  to  blink  at  the  flashing  lights, — 
Turkish  great-grandfathers  of  uncertain  age  and 
many  deformities,  who  never  venture  into  the  streets, 
but  spend  their  days  crouched  in  a  corner  of 
the  closed-in  dwelling,  waiting  for  death  to  take 
them. 

Sometimes  arrests  have  to  be  made  in  Turkish 
houses  of  a  better  class,  and  there  the  additional  com- 
plication of  a  part  of  the  house  being  supposed  to  be 
strictly  barred  off  as  the  harem  makes  the  search  more 
difficult.  The  servants,  with  the  ingenuity  of  the 
Levantine  mind,  are  expert  in  lying  to  conceal  their 
master's  whereabouts.  "  Since  you  must  know,"  said 
the  butler  of  one  suspect,  "  my  master  is  unfortu- 
nately addicted  to  excessive  drinking,  and  often  stays 
downtown  all  night  getting  drunk  with  friends.  He 
has  not  come  home  to-night,  and  I  expect  that  that 
is  where  he  is."  And  this  plausible  story,  told  with 
the  shamefaced  air  of  a  faithful  servant  letting  a 
stranger  into  the  family  secrets,  might  have  been  be- 
lieved if  one  of  the  search-party  had  not  happened 
just  then  to  notice  a  small  door  that  had  not  been 
opened.  It  led  into  a  little  private  garden  belonging 
to  the  harem,  and  there,  standing  in  his  nightshirt 
among  the  bushes  in  the  middle  of  a  flower-bed,  was 


98          THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

the  supposed  secret  drinker  and  master  of  the  house, 
who  was  so  badly  wanted  by  our  police. 

Although  the  privacy  with  which  Turks  surround 
their  households  makes  arrests  there  rather  more  ex- 
citing, there  are  plenty  of  suspects  of  other  races  to 
be  dealt  with.  They  are  discovered  in  all  sorts  of 
places, — presenting  forged  passes  to  pickets  on  the 
roads;  at  the  railway  station;  on  the  quay  when 
steamers  come  in ;  or  even  in  the  midst  of  their  aston- 
ished friends  in  the  cafe.  And  if  there  is  one  thing 
that  adds  to  the  impression  that  these  arrests  make  on 
the  local  population,  it  is  the  quiet  and  unperturbed 
way  in  which  they  are  carried  out  by  our  people.  No 
fuss,  no  threatenings,  no  drawn  revolvers, — just  an 
almost  casual  "  Is  that  the  man?  Bring  him  along," 
the  sharp  click  of  a  handcuff  locking,  and  another 
enemy  agent  is  led  mildly  away  to  a  fate  which  his 
conscience  tells  him  is  full  of  unpleasant  possi- 
bilities. 

There  are  plenty  of  misdemeanours  less  grave  than 
spying,  however,  that  bring  the  local  population  of 
Salonica  into  contact  with  our  military  police.  Steal- 
ing or  receiving  goods  stolen  from  our  supply  dumps 
and  stores  is  the  commonest  of  them.  A  regular 
business  sprang  up  in  stealing  and  secretly  disposing 
of  portable  property  of  the  British  Army  directly  we 
landed  in  Salonica.  Blankets,  breeches,  condensed 
milk,  biscuits, — hidden  stores  of  them  were  accumu- 
lated all  over  the  town  and  traded  off  at  very  remu- 
nerative prices.  Our  agents  usually  got  onto  their 
track  by  employing  a  Greek  to  pose  as  a  purchaser 
and  would  seize  both  the  goods  and  the  money  pro- 
vided to  induce  a  sale  just  as  they  were  being  ex- 


OURSELVES  AND  THE  GREEKS  99 

changed  in  great  privacy  between  the  guilty  receiver 
and  the  paid  informer. 

There  are  thousands  of  Greeks  employed  about  the 
quays  discharging  ships,  and  in  the  early  days  they 
had  all  sorts  of  tricks  for  pilfering.  They  would  knock 
a  case  off  a  lighter  in  a  pre-arranged  spot  so  that 
they  could  come  back  at  night  and  fish  it  up  again. 
At  one  dump,  surrounded  by  a  barbed-wire  fence, 
they  even  tunnelled  down  to  beneath  the  pile  of 
packing-cases  and  then  opened  them  from  below  and 
extracted  their  contents,  leaving  the  emptied  boxes  in 
place  so  that  they  looked  as  if  they  had  never  been 
touched.  The  Greek  soldiers  were  even  bold  enough 
to  form  bands  and  hold  up  isolated  motor-lorries  laden 
with  stores,  so  that  an  order  had  to  be  issued  that  each 
lorry  should  carry  a  guard  of  two  armed  men,  and 
A.S.C.  drivers  always  had  their  rifles  by  their  sides. 
Gradually,  however,  the  activities  of  our  organisation, 
and  the  robust  handling  which  a  Greek  thief  caught 
red-handed  might  expect  from  the  military  police, 
made  the  game  too  risky  to  be  worth  playing,  and 
thieving  from  the  army  has  now  decreased  to  insig- 
nificance. 


CHAPTER  VII 

OFFICIAL   DEVELOPMENTS   AND    THE 
"  SALONICA  REVOLUTION  " 

THE  expulsion  of  the  German,  Austrian,  Bul- 
garian and  Turkish  consuls  from  our  midst  at 
Salonica  was  the  first  step  that  the  Allies  took 
which  emphasised  the  inevitable  conflict  of  authority 
in  the  town.  Up  till  then  the  situation  had  really  been 
Gilbertian.  Here  we  were  at  war  with  all  these  four 
states,  the  Salonica  Army  being  actually  engaged 
with  three  of  them,  while  at  the  base  and  head- 
quarters of  that  army  the  official  diplomatic  repre- 
sentatives of  the  enemy  countries  were  still  going 
about  freely  and  openly, — not  organising  a  spy  sys- 
tem against  us,  for  all  that  had  been  done  long 
before, — but  supervising  it,  meeting  every  day,  ex- 
changing information,  sending  off  reports  in  code, 
posting  letters  by  the  train  which  ran  daily  to  Con- 
stantinople, sitting  down  at  lunch  and  dinner  in 
crowded  restaurants  at  the  same  table  with  French  or 
British  officers  who  never  imagined  for  a  moment 
that  the  unobtrusive  civilian  in  a  black  coat  at  their 
elbow  was  the  Bulgarian  consul,  perfectly  acquainted 
with  their  language,  and  at  the  head  of  an  organisa- 
tion which  was  working  night  and  day  with  the  sole 
object  of  their  personal  destruction  and  national 
undoing.  The  Bulgarian  consul,  M.  Nedkoff,  was 
the  most  active  and  intelligent  of  the  four  enemy  con- 

100 


OFFICIAL  DEVELOPMENTS  101 

suls.  I  had  known  him  personally  in  earlier  years ;  in 
fact,  I  remember  his  drinking  the  health  of  King 
George  with  sincere  enthusiasm  on  Coronation  Day, 
1910,  when  both  he  and  I  were  the  guests  of  the 
British  consul  in  Monastir  at  a  dinner  given  in  hon- 
our of  the  event. 

Some  were  in  favour  from  the  first  of  arresting 
these  consuls,  but  General  Sarrail's  decision  was  to 
respect  their  extra-territorial  rights  which  they  must 
be  considered  to  possess  as  consuls  on  neutral  soil, 
unless  and  until  they  could  be  proved  to  be  carrying 
on  espionage.  But  that  was  just  the  difficulty.  The 
Greek  police  protected  them;  it  was  impossible  to 
catch  them  in  the  act.  The  Allied  secret  service 
agents  were  shadowed  by  Greek  detectives  who 
warned  the  consuls  of  danger.  Yet  there  was  a  moral 
certainty  that  the  enemy  consuls  were  not  only  carry- 
ing on  espionage  but  also  concealing  stocks  of  bombs 
and  arms. 

At  last,  however,  the  Germans  took  hostile  action 
against  Salonica, — not  on  the  camps  around  but 
against  the  town  itself.  They  sent  their  aeroplanes 
to  bomb  it,  thereby  showing  that  they  at  least  did  not 
consider  it  neutral  territory.  Upon  this  Sarrail  at 
once  decided  to  expel  the  enemy  consuls,  and  in  the 
afternoon  of  the  day  of  the  aeroplanes'  visit  they  were 
arrested  with  all  their  families  and  staffs  and  de- 
ported. Search  of  the  consulates,  which  some  months 
later  were  taken  over  for  General  Staff  purposes, 
confirmed  to  the  full  the  suspicions  that  had  centred 
round  them. 

The  seizing  of  the  Greek  forts  of  Karaburnu,  which 
commanded  the  entrance  to  the  harbour  of  Salonica, 


was  the  second  act  by  which  circumstances  forced  the 
Allies  to  tighten  their  grip  on  the  town  which  was 
their  base. 

In  December,  1915,  when  M.  Pallis  came  from 
Athens  to  see  General  Sarrail,  with  the  so-called  mis- 
sion of  dissipating  misunderstandings  between  the 
Greek  Government  and  the  Allies,  Sarrail  mentioned 
that  the  naval  command  at  Salonica  insisted  that  the 
question  of  the  forts  of  Karaburnu  should  be  exam- 
ined, as  they  were  in  a  position  to  do  much  harm  to  the 
Allied  Fleet  and  cut  off  the  town  from  the  sea.  Pallis 
promised  on  behalf  of  King  Constantine  that  what- 
ever happened  the  forts  of  Karaburnu  should  not 
fire, — "  whatever,"  though  unexpressed,  meaning  of 
course  the  eventuality  of  an  overwhelming  enemy  at- 
tack obliging  the  Allies  to  evacuate  the  Balkans  and 
re-embark  at  Salonica.  The  matter  was  left  at  that. 
But  the  practical  situation  was  so  little  improved  by 
this  vague  pledge  that  at  length  General  Sarrail  was 
informed  that  the  French  Minister  of  Marine  had 
ordered  the  French  naval  forces  at  Salonica  to  occupy 
Karaburnu. 

The  Allied  naval  commanders  consulted  together 
about  this  and  decided  that  although  of  course  the 
ships  could,  in  the  event  of  resistance,  shell  the  forts, 
it  would  be  more  convenient  for  the  purposes  of  per- 
manently occupying  them  that  the  army  should  fur- 
nish a  contingent  of  the  garrison.  The  seizure  of  the 
forts  was,  indeed,  an  operation  which  needed  careful 
preparation,  for  our  naval  captive  balloon  in  H.M.S. 
"  Canning  "  had  been  up  every  day  taking  photo- 
graphs which  clearly  showed  that  the  Greeks  were 
busy  building  new  gun-emplacements.  We  later 


OFFICIAL  DEVELOPMENTS  10S 

found  that  they  had  also  laid  in  a  stock  of  armour- 
piercing  shells  of  recent  pattern. 

Admiral  Gaucher,  the  French  Admiral  command- 
ing in  the  Eastern  Mediterranean,  accordingly  got 
into  touch  with  General  Sarrail,  and  it  was  arranged 
to  make  a  joint  operation  of  it,  the  whole  of  the  Allied 
fleets  being  represented,  the  Italian  "  Piemonte " 
and  the  Russian  "  Askold,"  then  at  Salonica,  taking 
part  as  well  as  French  and  English  ships,  the  latter 
also  landing  marines. 

The  seizure  of  the  forts  was  made  on  the  morning 
of  January  28,  1916.  It  was  very  thoroughly  ar- 
ranged by  the  French,  and  all  precautions  for  over- 
coming resistance  were  taken.  The  delicacy  of  the 
operation  lay  in  the  fact  that  at  that  time  our  rela- 
tions with  the  Greeks  were  very  near  the  breaking- 
point,  and  it  would  have  needed  little  more  than  a 
fight  at  Karaburnu  for  us  to  have  had  the  whole  Greek 
Army  on  top  of  us. 

Three  thousand  French  troops  were  the  main  force 
employed.  They  marched  round  behind  Salonica 
towards  Karaburnu  Point,  on  the  east  side  of  the 
Gulf,  coming  fifty  miles  in  two  days.  At  10.30  P.M. 
on  the  night  before  the  forts  were  to  be  occupied,  they 
cut  the  telephone  wires  connecting  them  with  the 
Greek  garrison  and  headquarters  at  Salonica.  At 
7  A.M.  on  January  28th,  our  contingent  of  100  marines 
landed  from  H.M.S.  "Albion"  and  reported  to 
Colonel  Curie,  the  French  officer  who  was  in  command 
of  the  whole  operation.  They  were  placed  on  the  left 
wing  of  the  attacking  party.  Several  English  bat- 
talions were  further  back,  in  reserve  for  eventualities, 
but  were  kept  in  ignorance  of  what  was  going  on, 


being  led  to  their  positions  by  Staff  officers  and  after 
remaining  there  two  days  were  marched  back  to  camp 
again. 

The  forts  were  really  rather  shore-batteries  than 
forts  properly  so-called.  Their  normal  garrison  was 
250  men.  There  were  two  8.4-inch  guns  in  the  main 
battery,  which  had  been  inherited  from  the  Turks,  and 
of  which  the  "  strips  "  on  the  sights  with  Turkish 
numerals  had  not  even  been  replaced.  Two  6-inch 
Armstrong  guns  and  some  German  field-guns  formed 
the  rest  of  the  armament. 

The  French  troops  with  the  party  of  British  marines 
then  advanced  on  the  forts,  making  occasional  halts  of 
about  twenty  minutes.  Each  time  this  happened  the 
French  threw  up  "  scrapes  "  of  earth  in  front  of  them, 
and  when  they  got  to  within  2,500  yards  of  the  forts 
the  mountain-guns  were  put  together  and  dug  in  too. 
There  was  a  screen  of  cavalry  behind,  cutting  off  all 
connection  with  Salonica,  and  three  Farman  aero- 
planes overhead.  No  chances  were  taken,  for  the 
stake  was  great.  We  were  really  in  a  weak  position 
at  Salonica,  for  all  our  apparent  strength;  King  Con- 
stantine  was  believed  to  be  even  eager  for  a  pretext 
to  be  driven  into  hostilities  against  us,  and  if  a  fight 
with  the  Greeks  had  started,  supported  as  it  would 
have  been  very  quickly  by  German  detachments 
rushed  down  the  railway,  we  should  have  been  in  an 
unpleasant  situation,  with  our  backs  to  the  sea  and  a 
hostile  and  treacherous  population  all  around  us. 

When  the  Allied  force  got  near  Karaburnu  Point, 
the  English  marines  were  ordered  to  go  on  ahead  and 
occupy  Tuzla  Fort,  an  outlying  work  about  three 
miles  beyond  the  others.  They  set  out  and  had  gone 


OFFICIAL  DEVELOPMENTS  105 

some  way  when  they  met  a  detachment  of  Greek  sol- 
diers under  a  sergeant  who  at  once  halted  his  men  and 
gave  the  order,  "  Fix  bayonets!  "  The  English  con- 
tinued to  advance  with  sloped  arms  and  without 
bayonets  fixed,  when  the  Greek  N.C.O.  suddenly 
produced  an  automatic  pistol  and  levelled  it  at  the 
head  of  the  marine  captain  in  command  of  the  party. 
On  this,  the  marines  halted  and  the  intelligence 
officer  of  the  "  Albion,"  who  had  been  brought  up  in 
Turkey  and  spoke  Greek  excellently,  opened  a  parley. 
He  said:  "We  have  come  to  occupy  the  fort.  It's 
quite  all  right.  Everything  has  been  fixed  up  by  this 
time  with  the  Greek  C.O.  at  Karaburnu." 

The  N.C.O.,  on  this,  said  that  he  would  let  them 
pass  if  they  would  give  him  time  to  send  a  messenger 
back  to  Tuzla  to  ring  up  Karaburnu.  The  messenger 
was  sent,  but  it  afterwards  transpired  that  he  took  a 
recommendation  to  the  Greek  officer  there  to  serve 
out  ball-cartridges  and  prepare  to  defend  the  fort. 

Our  men  continued  to  advance  along  the  barren 
coast-line,  and  when  they  reached  Tuzla  found  some 
of  the  garrison  lining  a  breastwork  in  front  of  the 
fort  and  the  rest  in  the  windows  of  the  red-brick  build- 
ing used  as  a  barracks.  The  subaltern  in  command 
came  out  to  parley.  He  said  that  his  C.O.  had  gone 
to  Salonica  on  forty-eight  hours'  leave.  He  refused 
to  let  the  marines  enter,  so  the  English  captain 
sent  back  to  the  French  to  say  that  he  was  held  up. 
The  garrison  of  the  fort  was  only  seventy  strong,  but 
they  were  behind  cover  and  in  any  case  the  possible 
consequences  of  a  fight  were  so  serious  that  it  had  to 
be  avoided  except  as  a  last  extremity.  A  French 
officer  soon  arrived,  and  he,  together  with  the  captain 


106        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

of  marines,  again  addressed  the  young  subaltern. 
"  You  must  surrender  to  superior  force,"  they  said. 
"  If  you  resist,  the  fleet  has  orders  directly  it  hears 
the  sound  of  firing  to  shell  every  strategic  point  in 
Salonica."  (This  was  true;  the  battleships  and  moni- 
tors had  their  guns  ready  trained  on  the  barracks  and 
public  buildings. )  This  argument  was  strong  enough, 
and  the  Greek  subaltern,  who  had  throughout  the 
parley  been  at  a  white  heat  of  indignation,  opened 
the  gates  of  the  fort.  He  explained  that  he  had  taken 
part  in  the  first  Balkan  War,  and  had  helped  to  turn 
the  Turks  out  of  these  very  forts,  "  And  now  you've 
turned  us  out,"  he  added  despondently. 

Meanwhile  the  French  had  occupied  the  other  forts 
and  the  whole  of  the  dangerous  position  of  Karaburnu 
was  in  our  hands  before  the  Greek  headquarters  in 
Salonica  knew  that  anything  was  even  projected. 

When  our  men  had  installed  themselves  in  the  cap- 
tured fort,  there  was  an  old  Turk  who  used  to  come 
to  sell  vegetables  to  them,  whose  white  beard  would 
shake  with  laughter  as  he  handed  them  over  the  gate. 
The  interpreter  asked  him  what  he  was  laughing  at. 
"  Ah,  it  is  such  a  pleasure,"  said  the  old  man,  "  to 
see  the  English  instead  of  the  Greeks  where  my 
brothers  the  Turks  used  to  be." 

So  things  went  on,  in  an  atmosphere  of  consider- 
able strain,  although  the  French  were  giving  the) 
Greeks  the  use  of  twenty  motor-lorries  daily  to  sup- 
ply Seres  and  other  places  up-country  with  food,  at 
an  expense  to  themselves  of  £50  per  day.  Gratitude, 
however,  was  not  a  conspicuous  feature  of  the  tem- 
perament of  the  people  with  whom  we  had  to  deal. 
It  was  remarkable  how  instinctively  and  unanimously 


Photograph. 


BRITISH    MOUNTAIN    GUN    IN    ACTION. 


OFFICIAL  DEVELOPMENTS  107 

the  soldiers  of  the  different  Allied  armies, — as 
heterogeneous  a  collection  as  possible  of  characters, 
tastes  and  standards  of  conduct, — agreed  in  detesting 
the  Greek  at  this  time. 

Thousands  of  Greeks,  men,  women  and  children, 
have  been  taken  into  the  service  of  the  British  Army 
as  labourers  and  muleteers.  The  stone-breaking  for 
the  ceaseless  repair  of  those  new  and  hard-used  roads 
with  which  we  have  laced  the  desert  of  Macedonia  is 
all  done  by  civilian  labour,  paid  from  three  to  seven 
francs  a  day  (the  higher  rate  for  foremen),  fed  and 
housed  in  large  camps  under  British  officers  who 
speak  the  local  tongues.  Every  mile  or  two  as  you 
drive  you  will  find  the  road  lined  on  both  sides  with 
a  black  fringe  of  these  peasants,  refugees  or  local  vil- 
lagers,— of  all  the  races  of  the  Balkans,  Serb,  Turk- 
ish, Bulgar  (though  of  Greek  allegiance),  the  mixed 
race  that  calls  itself  "  Macedonian,"  Kutzo-Vlach, 
and  Greek.  Full-trousered  old  grannies  with  grey 
hair,  hammering  industriously  away,  sit  alongside 
youngsters  with  chubby  (and  very  dirty)  bare  feet, 
chipping  just  as  vigorously.  The  men  and  the 
boys, — harder-working  boys  than  I  have  seen  any- 
where,— do  the  heavier  wheelbarrow  work,  and  all  of 
them  are  under  the  benign  but  alert  control  of  an 
English  sergeant  whose  acquaintance  with  Balkan 
tongues  ends  at  "  Hidey," — a  general  word  of  incite- 
ment,— but  who  gives  orders  by  means  of  the  phrase, 
"  Hi,  Johnny,"  followed  by  expressive  pantomime. 
"  Johnny  "  was  the  term  used  from  the  first  by  the 
British  soldier  as  the  only  way  of  addressing  an  in- 
habitant of  Macedonia,  and  the  population  of  the 
Balkans,  imitative  as  parrots,  have  responded  by 


108         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

adopting  it  on  their  part  for  us.  "  Shine,  Jawhn- 
nie?  "  screech  the  Salonica  shoeblacks  as  you  walk  the 
muddy  streets,  hammering  their  boxes  with  the  backs 
of  their  brushes.  "  Penny,  Jawhnnie,"  whine  the 
gypsy  brats,  running  along  at  your  elbow  and  making 
disconcerting  efforts  to  kiss  the  skirt  of  your  coat. 
"  Finish,  Johnny,"  is  a  phrase  likely  to  be  a  perma- 
ment  addition  to  the  vocabulary  of  the  Balkans  for 
expressing  the  simple  idea  that  it  conveys. 

Aboriginal  though  the  workers  of  the  road-gangs 
look  in  their  rough  and  generally  filthy  national  dress, 
they  sometimes  give  you  a  surprise.  On  a  rough  hill- 
road  in  a  lonely  region,  where  I  had  stopped  with  a 
boiling  radiator,  a  black,  rough-coated  fellow  with 
the  cowl  of  his  picturesque  frieze  jerkin  drawn  over 
his  head, — a  sort  of  foreman  of  the  gang  at  work 
there, — came  and  stood  by  the  car.  "  Isn't  that  a  fine 
type  of  savage? "  I  said  casually  to  my  companion. 
The  next  remark  to  be  made  came  in  fluent  trans- 
Atlantic  English  from  the  object  of  this  faint  praise 
of  mine.  "  Guess  you  wahnt  some  wahter?  "  he  said. 
"  I'll  send  one  my  fellers  fetch  you  some."  I  started 
in  some  little  confusion.  "  Where  did  you  learn  Eng- 
lish? "  I  asked,  though  the  question  was  needless. 

"  Buffalo,  five  year,"  he  jerked  in  reply.  '  Ye-es, 
I'd  like  fine  get  back  there,  too.  This  country  no 
dam  use,  anyhow.  No  money.  Can't  get  away, 
though,  now." 

They  all  say  they  want  to  get  back  to  America,  as 
a  matter  of  fact.  But  the  homing  instinct  in  the  in- 
habitant of  the  Balkans,  and  particularly  the  Greek, 
is  so  strong  that  he  will  leave  the  new-found  civilisa- 
tion of  street-cars  and  telephones  and  soda-fountains 


OFFICIAL  DEVELOPMENTS  109 

and  cinemas  as  soon  as  he  has  saved  a  little  money, 
and  return  again  to  his  remote,  squalid,  muddy, 
tumble-down  village,  where  nothing  but  the  dreary 
monotony  of  a  peasant's  life  on  the  reluctant  soil 
awaits  him. 

The  Greek  Muleteer  Corps  that  we  enlisted  was  at 
first  dressed  in  khaki  uniform,  with  only  a  tin  badge 
on  the  arm  as  a  distinguishing  mark,  and  one  used 
to  have  the  shock  of  meeting  what  seemed  to  be  the 
most  rapscallion,  untidy  mob  of  English  drivers  you 
had  ever  set  eyes  on.  Later  on,  however,  the  Mule- 
teer Corps  dress  was  changed  to  black  tunics  and 
slouch  hats.  They  get  three  drachmas  (2s.  6d.)  a  day 
all  found.  They  are  not  so  good  as  English  drivers, 
of  course,  but  transport  is  such  an  immense  problem 
in  the  Balkans  that  we  had  to  have  more  drivers  from 
somewhere,  and  Greek  labour  was  the  only  solution. 
It  is  always  undesirable,  of  course,  to  use  aliens  in  the 
zone  of  an  army  in  the  field,  and  on  a  few  occasions 
some  of  these  people  have  been  found  carrying  letters 
with  spy-reports  for  the  enemy,  which  they  were  to 
hide  in  pre-arranged  places  to  be  fetched  by  other 
agents,  but  we  have  never  had  enough  men  in  the 
Balkans  to  do  anything  big  as  it  is,  and  we  should 
have  had  fewer  combatants  still  if  we  had  had  to  find 
drivers  for  all  the  horse  and  mule  transport  that  we 
use. 

Rupel  is  a  black  word  with  our  Army  in  the  Bal- 
kans. When  the  Bulgars  suddenly  advanced  and 
took  over  from  the  Greeks  (by  previous  secret  ar- 
rangement) the  fort  that  commands  the  Struma  val- 
ley, they  threw  a  five-barred  gate  across  the  only  way 
by  which  we  might  later  on  have  been  able  to  ad- 


110        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

vance  into  Bulgaria.  The  Bulgars  stopped  the  gap 
we  might  have  gone  through.  They  put  themselves 
across  the  path  of  any  advance  northward,  and  on 
the  flank  of  any  advance  eastward.  Since  then  the 
wall  of  strong  positions  over  against  us  has  been 
complete,  and  to  achieve  anything  on  what  later  be- 
came the  British  sector  of  the  front  it  was  made  prac- 
tically inevitable  that  we  should  first  attack  the  strong 
position  of  Rupel. 

Why  did  not  the  French,  whose  troops  were  on  the 
Struma  at  the  time,  seize  and  hold  Fort  Rupel  before 
the  Bulgars  got  there?  It  is  a  question  that  has  been 
often  asked.  Certainly  we  had  plenty  of  reasons  to 
expect  that  they  would  advance  on  the  fort.  What 
restrained  the  French  General  Staff  from  occupying 
it,  however,  was  that,  with  the  limited  forces  which 
General  Sarrail  had  at  his  disposition,  it  would  only 
have  been  possible  to  send  a  regiment  (say  2,000 
men)  to  hold  it  and  the  mouth  of  the  defile  which  it 
protected.  This  would  not  have  prevented  the  Bul- 
gars from  coming  down  in  force,  and  the  destruction 
or  the  capture  of  the  isolated  garrison  thrust  far  out 
in  advance  of  the  main  Allied  Army  would  have  been 
a  defeat  for  us  and  an  injury  to  our  cause. 

It  was  on  the  morning  of  May  26th  that  the  Bul- 
garian force  sent  to  seize  Rupel  appeared  in  the 
valley  of  the  Struma.  It  was,  at  first,  reported  as  one 
brigade  strong,  then  as  one  division.  The  infantry  of 
the  force  seems  to  have  consisted  of  three  whole  regi- 
ments and  part  of  another,  and  there  was  also  artil- 
lery, three  companies  of  German  sappers,  and  some 
Uhlans.  The  enemy  came  in  three  columns,  of  which 
the  centre  one  moved  on  Rupel.  The  fort  had  a 


OFFICIAL  DEVELOPMENTS  111 

Greek  garrison,  of  course,  the  Greek  Army  being 
still  in  occupation  of  Seres  and  Demir  Hissar,  and  as 
the  Bulgars  approached  the  Greeks  fired  a  few  shells 
at  them, — a  pro  forma  resistance  evidently, — to  which 
the  Bulgars  made  no  reply,  but  instead  sent  at  noon  a 
white  flag  to  demand  the  surrender  of  the  fort.  The 
officer  in  command  said  that  he  could  not  give  it  up 
without  orders  from  Athens,  so  a  delay  was  granted 
for  these  to  be  obtained,  and  at  2.30  P.M.  the  tele- 
graphic order  came  that  the  Greek  garrison  was  to 
evacuate  the  fort  and  withdraw  to  Demir  Hissar. 
So  the  Greek  flag  was  hauled  down  and  the  Bul- 
garian one  hoisted.  The  Bulgars  and  Germans 
signed  an  inventory  of  the  contents  of  the  fort  and 
told  General  Bay  eras  that  they  only  wanted  it  for 
defensive  purposes,  to  stop  an  Allied  move  north- 
wards. A  telegram  to  the  Athens  Government  from 
General  Bay  eras,  who  commanded  the  6th  Greek 
Division  at  Seres,  which  came  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  French  General  Staff,  goes  far  to  confirm  the  idea 
that  Rupel  was  surrendered  by  King  Constantine  to 
his  friends  and  our  enemies  by  deliberate  previous 
collusion.  '  The  Germans  and  Bulgars  arrived  at 
Demir  Hissar  station  this  morning  to  occupy  it," 
telegraphed  the  General  a  day  or  two  later.  ;<  I  told 
them  that  I  could  not  hand  over  the  station  without 
previous  reference  to  you,  because  the  transference 
of  Demir  Hissar  station  was  not  comprised  in  the 
treaty." 

Only  a  year  later,  in  July,  1917,  did  it  become 
known,  from  the  disclosures  made  by  the  re-established 
Venizelist  Government  in  Athens,  that  immediately 
before  handing  over  Fort  Rupel  to  the  Germans  and 


112         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

their  allies,  King  Constantine's  Government  had  ob- 
tained (as  the  price  of  it)  a  loan  of  £3,000,000  from 
the  German  Government,  while  at  the  same  moment, 
with  characteristic  duplicity,  it  was  trying  to  avail 
itself  of  the  long-suffering  benevolence  of  the  Allies  to 
get  another  loan  of  £5,000,000  out  of  them. 

Demir  Hissar  station  was  occupied  immediately 
after  Rupel,  treaty  or  no  treaty,  and  the  Bulgarians, 
crossing  the  Greek  frontier  at  other  points,  waited 
only  until  they  were  ready  to  make  a  simultaneous 
push  on  the  other  flank  of  the  Allied  front  before 
carrying  the  zone  of  their  occupation  down  to  Kavalla, 
so  that  it  enclosed  our  positions  in  a  great  arc.  At 
Kavalla  part  of  the  garrison  under  Colonel  Hatzo- 
poulo  went  over  to  the  side  which  had  always  had  their 
sympathies  and  were  carried  off  to  Berlin  for  "  train- 
ing." Colonel  Christodoulo,  who  had  brought  down  a 
contingent  of  anti-Bulgar  Greeks  from  Seres,  got 
across  to  Thasos  island  and  so  back  to  Salonica,  where 
he  was  received  by  the  population  with  hero-worship, 
and  later  became  the  first  General  of  the  Venizelist 
forces.  Salonica,  as  a  part  of  New  Greece,  was  indeed 
much  perturbed  by  the  invasion  of  the  Struma  valley 
by  the  Bulgars.  Her  townspeople  remembered  by 
what  precarious  means  Salonica  had  become  Greek, 
and  they  knew  that  the  Bulgars  aimed,  and  aim  still, 
definitely  and  ardently,  at  recapturing  the  coveted 
port  in  which  their  troops  temporarily  set  foot  during 
the  first  Balkan  War.  There  was  a  large  public  meet- 
ing of  protest  against  the  action  of  the  Greek  Gov- 
ernment, held  in  Salonica,  which  the  Royalist  munici- 
pal authorities  tried  in  vain  to  prevent,  and  from  that 
time  a  feeling  of  resentment  and  apprehension  grew. 


OFFICIAL  DEVELOPMENTS  113 

among  the  townspeople  and  the  officers  of  the  gar- 
rison until  it  brought  about  the  "  Revolution "  of 
August  30th. 

Following  upon  the  Bulgarian  descent  into  Greek 
territory,  and  their  seizure,  by  connivance  with  the 
Greek  Government,  of  the  fort  of  Rupel,  General 
Sarrail  (on  June  3rd)  seized  the  control  at  Salonica 
of  the  services  of  communication  and  the  police  force 
of  the  town.  The  step  was  one  essential  to  our  mili- 
tary security.  It  was  the  knowledge  which  reached 
the  French  General  Staff  of  the  telegram  to  the 
Greek  Government,  proving  its  complicity  in  the  ad- 
vance of  the  Bulgarians  against  us,  that  armed  Sar- 
rail's  hand.  His  reply  to  the  surrender  of  Fort 
Rupel  was  the  proclamation  of  martial  law  at  Sa- 
lonica and  throughout  the  zone  of  the  Allied  Armies, 
and  the  military  occupation  of  the  public  buildings  of 
the  town.  With  the  swiftness  and  decision  which 
are  characteristic  of  Sarrail's  actions,  the  step  was 
taken  on  King  Constantine's  birthday,  the  prepara- 
tions for  the  celebration  of  which  were  hastily  called 
off  as  French  patrols  with  fixed  bayonets  suddenly 
appeared  before  all  the  public  buildings  and  at  every 
street-corner.  The  civil  administration  of  the  town, 
except  Posts  and  Telegraphs  and  police,  was  left  in 
the  hands  of  the  Greeks,  but  several  officials  who  had 
been  particularly  active  in  their  hostility  to  the  Allies, 
such  as  Troupakis,  the  head  of  the  gendarmerie,  were 
expelled. 

I  will  not  go  into  the  question  of  the  blockade  of 
the  Greek  coast  by  which  we  brought  pressure  to  bear 
on  Athens.  That  was  a  political  matter  ordered  in  the 
first  place  by  the  French  Minister  of  Marine,  the 


114        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

French  Government  acting  as  the  delegate  of  the 
Allies  in  the  relations  of  the  Entente  with  Greece. 
Several  times  troops  were  embarked  at  Salonica  to 
go  and  lie  off  Athens  ready  to  land  if  the  Greek  Gov- 
ernment proved  obstinate.  Dense  secrecy  prevailed, 
of  course,  about  these  movements;  and  rumours  of 
the  greatest  variety  about  their  destination  would 
spring  up  in  the  town  like  mushrooms  after  rain. 

As  a  result  of  these  demonstrations,  we  won  some 
pseudo-concessions  from  the  Royalist  Government  at 
Athens.  Thus,  after  June  21st,  when  we  threatened 
to  occupy  the  capital,  the  King  agreed  to  demobilise 
his  army, — but  he  proceeded  to  arm  civilians,  who 
formed  bands  of  irregulars  in  our  rear  just  as  capable 
of  giving  us  trouble  as  Greek  uniformed  troops  would 
have  been. 

At  length,  at  the  end  of  August,  1916,  came  the 
"  Salonica  Revolution."  This  was  an  outbreak  of 
indignation  of  the  Greeks  of  Macedonia  against  the 
simultaneous  invasion  of  still  larger  tracts  of  both 
Eastern  and  Western  Macedonia  by  the  Bulgars, 
which  took  place  in  August,  when  they  occupied  Fio- 
rina and  Banitza  and  advanced  to  Lake  Ostrovo 
in  the  west,  and  pushed  on  to  Kavalla  in  the  east. 

By  a  sudden  and  rather  dramatic  upheaval,  such 
as  appeals  to  the  Greek  temperament,  allegiance  to 
King  Constantine  and  the  Athens  Government  was 
renounced  by  the  majority  of  the  Salonica  garrison 
and  population,  and  the  resistance  of  the  Royalist 
minority  was  overcome  after  five  minutes'  fighting 
in  the  dark.  The  "  Revolution  "  had  the  distinct  ad- 
vantage for  the  Allies  of  clarifying  the  situation. 
The  transference  by  the  revolutionaries  of  their  adher- 


OFFICIAL  DEVELOPMENTS  115 

ence  from  King  Constantine  to  the  Entente  made 
General  Sarr ail's  authority  supreme  in  Salonica. 
And  after  that  there  was  no  more  trouble. 

A  revolutionary  feeling  had  been  growing  in  Mace- 
donia ever  since  the  Greek  troops,  under  orders  from 
the  Athens  Government,  abandoned  Fort  Rupel  and  a 
considerable  extent  of  Greek  territory  to  Bulgarian 
occupation.  The  jealous  hatred  which  is  the  chief 
feature  of  the  international  relations  of  the  Balkan 
races  was  stirred  to  frenzy,  and  a  really  bitter  feeling 
of  indignation  sprang  up  and  grew  against  the  pro- 
German  King  and  his  Ministers;  nor  was  this  indig- 
nation based  solely  upon  sentiment.  Well-founded 
apprehension  had  no  small  part  in  it.  The  graves 
were  still  fresh  of  the  victims  of  the  Bulgarian  mas- 
sacres at  Doxato,  in  the  very  district  which  was  now 
tamely  surrendered  to  them.  The  hopes  of  this  Greek 
pro- Ally  party  which  was  forming  at  Salonica  had 
been  raised  for  a  moment  during  the  last  week  of 
August  by  the  news  from  Athens  that  General  Dous- 
manis,  Chief  of  the  General  Staff,  the  arch-enemy  of 
the  Entente,  and  principal  pro-German  plotter,  had 
lost  his  post,  and  had  been  replaced  by  General  Mos- 
chopoulos,  who  had  previously  commanded  the  Greek 
Army  Corps  at  Salonica.  But  though  Moschopoulos 
had  been  personally  friendly  with  the  Allied  Staffs, 
he  was  above  everything  a  professional  soldier,  anx- 
ious not  to  forfeit  his  post  for  political  reasons,  and  he 
quickly  came  into  the  orbit  of  King  Constantine  and 
the  pro-Germans  with  whom  he  had  to  work  in 
Athens. 

And  the  last  circumstance  which  encouraged  the 
pro- Ally  party  at  Salonica  to  pass  from  sympathy  to 


116        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

action  was  the  fact  of  Roumania's  entry  into  the  war. 

It  must  be  remembered, — though  the  recollection 
is  bitter  now, — that  it  was  then  expected  with  con- 
fidence that  this  event  marked  the  beginning  of  the 
triumph  of  our  Balkan  campaign.  Bulgaria  would 
be  crushed  by  a  converging  attack  from  both  sides. 
Russia, — mysterious,  but  with  her  strength  as  yet 
undoubted, — would  begin  an  irresistible  offensive  at 
the  same  time;  the  Allies  at  Salonica  would  march 
victoriously  forward  through  the  Balkans.  There 
would  be  redistribution  of  territories  and  a  recasting 
of  frontiers,  and  from  all  this,  Greece,  as  the  pro- 
Ally  party  at  Salonica  felt,  would  be  shut  out  and 
left  without  a  friend  in  the  world. 

So  on  the  afternoon  of  August  30th  a  proclama- 
tion suddenly  appeared  on  the  walls  of  Salonica,  ad- 
dressed to  the  Greek  people  and  the  Greek  Army  and 
signed  by  Colonel  Zimbrakakis,  the  leader  of  the 
movement,  by  Colonel  Mazarakis,  by  the  Venizelist 
deputy  from  Seres,  and  half  a  dozen  other  lesser  per- 
sonages, over  the  title,  "  Committee  of  National  De- 
fence." In  brief,  what  they  said  was,  "  The  present 
state  of  affairs  has  lasted  long  enough.  The  sur- 
render to  the  Bulgars  of  Greek  forts  and  territories 
is  a  betrayal  of  the  fatherland  to  foreign  interests. 
The  time  has  come  for  Greece  to  place  herself  by  the 
side  of  the  Powers  of  the  Entente,  who  have  always 
been  her  friends."  The  proclamation  urged  the  Greek 
soldiers  at  Salonica  to  reject  all  further  orders  from 
Athens  and  to  join  the  Allies  in  driving  the  Bulgars 
off  Greek  soil. 

The  news  spread  through  the  town  that  the  Greek 
gendarmerie, — largely  Cretans,  and  therefore  Veni- 


OFFICIAL  DEVELOPMENTS  a  17 

zelists, — Had  joined  the  movement  in  a  body,  and  that 
the  officers  of  the  three  Greek  regiments  at  the  bar- 
racks were  holding  a  meeting  to  discuss  their  attitude. 
Meanwhile  Colonel  Zimbrakakis,  at  the  head  of  the 
gendarmes,  all  wearing  a  blue  and  white  silk  armlet, 
which  was  to  be  the  badge  of  the  Revolution,  and 
followed  by  a  nondescript  crowd  of  volunteers,  hastily 
equipped  with  any  weapons  available,  marched 
through  the  town  to  offer  his  services  and  theirs  to 
General  Sarrail.  The  side-street  in  front  of  French 
Headquarters  was  packed  with  an  excited  crowd,  for 
the  Greek  loves  political  demonstration  above  any 
form  of  entertainment.  General  Zimbrakakis  made 
an  impassioned  speech  from  horseback  amid  loud 
cheers  of  "  Zito !  "  then  went  in  to  offer  the  support  of 
his  adherents  to  the  Allied  cause  for  the  liberation  of 
Macedonia.  Sarrail  accepted  the  proffered  services, 
having  already  been  in  the  habit  of  taking  Greek 
volunteers  into  the  French  Army  since  the  Bulgars 
came  into  Greece.  At  the  same  time  he  issued  a  gen- 
eral warning  that  he  would  intervene  if  public  order 
were  disturbed.  Though  there  was  no  definite  repudi- 
ation of  loyalty  to  the  Greek  Crown,  I  heard  many 
cries  from  the  crowd  of  "Down  with  the  King!" 
and  there  was  a  feeling  in  Salonica  that  night  that 
trouble  was  in  the  air.  All  British  troops  were 
ordered  out  of  the  town  at  dusk,  but  everything 
remained  quiet  until  4.30  next  morning. 

My  own  quarters  when  in  Salonica  happened  to  be  in 
a  house  looking  directly  onto  the  broad  parade-ground 
which  lies  in  front  of  the  main  barracks,  and  I  was 
suddenly  awakened  by  a  violent  rifle-fire  very  close 
at  hand.  One  always  thinks  instinctively  of  aircraft 


118        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

nowadays  when  disturbed  by  explosive  noises  at 
night,  but  this  tumult  evidently  required  another 
explanation.  It  was  a  pitch-black  night.  I  went  out 
onto  the  verandah  at  the  back  of  the  house,  to  find 
the  whole  of  the  parade-ground  flickering  with  the 
flashes  of  rifles.  Bullets  were  flying  to  every  point  of 
the  compass.  Some  hit  my  house,  which  was  at  right- 
angles  to  the  line  of  fire ;  others  fell  in  Allied  camps  a 
mile  away.  Then  came  much  whistling  and  shouting 
and  the  firing  gradually  died  down  and  stopped.  But 
the  creaking  of  wheels  and  the  noise  of  footsteps  and 
lowered  voices  told  of  the  presence  of  a  good  many 
men.  It  was  evident  that  the  revolutionary  gen- 
darmes were  attacking  the  Royalist  infantry  and  cav- 
alry in  their  barracks. 

Dawn  came  in  an  hour  or  so,  and  the  position  grew 
clearer.  Overnight  the  revolutionary  gendarmes  had 
demanded  the  surrender  of  the  barracks  by  the  cav- 
alry and  infantry  that  occupied  them.  The  officers  of 
the  latter  refused,  and  when  the  time  fixed  by  the 
revolutionaries  for  the  evacuation  of  the  building  ar- 
rived the  Royalists  posted  their  men  along  the  front 
wall  of  the  tree-filled  garden.  At  4.30  A.M.,  sus- 
picious of  the  silence  and  fearing  a  surprise  attack, 
they  sent  out  from  the  barracks  a  reconnoitring  patrol 
of  sixty  men.  These  were  groping  across  the  parade- 
ground  in  the  dark  when  they  ran  into  the  gendarmes 
silently  assembling  to  invest  the  barracks.  Each  side 
thought  that  the  other  was  attacking  and  began  to 
fire  wildly. 

And  now  at  daylight  there  they  were,  the  blue- 
coated  gendarmes  lying  down  lining  the  tramway- 
street  on  one  side  of  the  parade-ground,  the  khaki 


OFFICIAL  DEVELOPMENTS  119 

soldiers  behind  the  wall  of  the  barracks  on  the  other. 
A  dead  horse  and  a  few  pools  of  blood  lay  about,  but 
the  losses  in  the  splutter  of  rifle-fire  were  only  one 
killed  and  two  wounded  on  the  side  of  the  gendarmes, 
and  two  killed  among  the  Royalist  troops.  One  or 
two  Greek  civilians,  poor  vagabonds  sleeping  out, 
also  stopped  stray  bullets. 

There  is  a  long  and  unsavoury  stream-bed  that 
runs  along  one  side  of  the  parade-ground  past  the 
bottom  of  my  garden.  It  was  amusing  to  watch  from 
the  roof  of  the  house  Royalist  and  revolutionary 
skirmishers  begin  simultaneously  to  steal  along  this, 
each  hidden  from  the  other  by  the  twists  and  turnings 
in  it.  They  would  get  within  about  thirty  yards 
before  catching  sight  of  each  other,  then  both  would 
bob  down  with  great  alacrity  and  lie  there  under 
cover  with  their  rifles  ready  to  fire. 

But  there  was  to  be  no  more  fighting.  Some  of  the 
civilian  volunteers,  looking  very  comitadji-like  in 
plain  clothes  with  assorted  rifles  and  bandoliers,  did 
indeed  arrive,  and  seemed  to  be  gathering  for  a  flank 
attack  under  the  corner  of  my  house,  but  their  spirits 
were  so  undecided  that  when  a  Royalist  officer  came 
out  of  the  barracks,  walked  up  to  them  and  began  to 
abuse  them,  they  only  listened  sheepishly  in  awkward 
silence.  "  If  we  get  hold  of  Zimbrakakis,"  remarked 
this  officer  amiably,  "  we  will  cut  him  in  pieces." 

But  General  Sarrail  had  already  decided  that  the 
Greeks  could  not  be  allowed  to  settle  their  political 
differences  by  sniping  each  other  in  the  streets  of  the 
town  that  was  his  military  base.  So  at  6  A.M.  a  hun- 
dred French  infantry  and  half  a  troop  of  cavalry 
marched  onto  the  Champ  de  Mars  with  the  deliberate 


120         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

and  business-like  air  of  police  arriving  at  a  pacifist 
demonstration.  Half  an  hour  later,  a  thousand  more 
followed.  They  lined  the  sides  of  the  parade-ground, 
sent  two  platoons  round  to  the  back  of  the  barracks, 
set  up  their  machine-guns,  and  lay  down,  ready  to 
open  fire  at  a  word.  An  anti-aircraft  motor-lorry 
drew  up  and  trained  its  field-gun  onto  the  main  gate 
of  the  Royalist  fortress  at  300  yards'  range.  A  bat- 
tery of  six  trench-mortars  was  set  out  in  a  suitable 
position.  Three  aeroplanes  came  and  circled  over- 
head. 

The  garrison  at  the  barracks  watched  these  cold- 
blooded preparations  with  evident  dismay.  Heads 
kept  on  bobbing  up  and  down  anxiously  behind  the 
wall.  Were  the  revolutionary  gendarmes  being  rein- 
forced by  the  French  for  a  joint  attack  to  overwhelm 
the  Royalist  defenders  and  convert  them  at  the  point 
of  the  bayonet?  The  outpost  in  the  stream-bed  was 
recalled  inside.  Then  a  little  convoy  of  empty  carts 
came  very  peaceably  out  of  the  main  gate,  presum- 
ably to  fetch  the  day's  rations,  and  try  to  restore 
things  to  a  normal  basis  by  following  out  the  regular 
routine.  The  revolutionary  pickets  sternly  turned  it 
back,  however,  to  the  undisguised  discouragement  of 
the  garrison,  who  had  been  watching  the  fate  of  this 
important  mission  with  anxiety. 

It  was  curious  to  see  how  little  attention  the  ordi- 
nary population  of  Salonica  paid  to  these  happenings. 
They  went  streaming  past  on  foot  and  in  the  trams 
along  the  street  at  the  bottom  of  the  parade-ground, 
hardly  turning  their  heads  to  notice  the  blue-coated 
revolutionaries  and  the  khaki-coated  Royalists  facing 
each  other  with  arms  in  their  hands  at  the  side  of  the 


OFFICIAL  DEVELOPMENTS  121 

street.  A  population  that  has  seen  so  many  uprisings 
and  disorders  within  the  last  few  years, — the  bullet- 
holes  in  the  walls  have  not  yet  been  filled  up  after  the 
street-fighting  between  Greeks  and  Bulgarians  in 
1913, — could  hardly  be  expected  to  give  great  atten- 
tion to  so  haphazard  a  bickering  as  this. 

At  10.30  General  Sarrail  arrived  on  the  parade- 
ground.  At  the  same  time,  about  fifty  Royalist  offi- 
cers without  their  swords  trooped  out  of  the  barracks 
and  walked  across  to  a  building  on  the  parade-ground, 
where  Sarrail  followed  them.  The  interview  was  of  a 
few  minutes  only,  and  it  took  place  standing.  Gen- 
eral Sarrail  is  always  energetic  and  decisive,  and  he 
dominated  this  situation  very  completely.  "  I  don't 
want  to  mix  myself  up  between  Greek  and  Greek," 
he  said,  "  but  I  will  not  have  shooting  going  on  in  the 
streets  of  this  town  which  is  my  base  and  head- 
quarters," and,  turning  to  Colonel  Tricoupis,  the 
leader  of  the  Royalists,  Sarrail  told  him  bluntly  that 
he  must  come  at  once  to  a  peaceful  settlement.  On 
this,  Tricoupis  replied  that  while  the  Royalist  officers 
refused  to  have  any  dealings  with  their  revolutionary 
opponents  they  had  no  objection  to  concluding 
an  agreement  with  the  French.  On  this,  Sarrail 
called  for  their  immediate  surrender,  and  pointed  out 
that  he  had  troops  of  his  own  there  in  considerable 
strength  to  enforce  submission  if  it  were  refused. 
The  officers,  he  said,  could  keep  their  swords.  The 
men  would  be  disarmed  and  marched  to  the  French 
camp  at  Zeitenlick. 

The  surrender  demanded  was  accorded  without  fur- 
ther resistance.  The  "  revolution  "  was  over,  and 
the  Committee  of  National  Defence,  taking  over  the 


122        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

administration  of  Salonica,  though  French  martial 
law  continued  to  exist  there,  issued  next  day  a  decree 
mobilising  the  1915  class  throughout  Macedonia, 
which  was  the  beginning  of  the  co-operation  of  Greek 
forces  with  the  Allies  in  the  field. 

Meanwhile,  the  movement  spread  to  other  towns  of 
the  province,  and  gradually  gathered  strength. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  SERBIAN 

ARMY 

IN  December,  1915,  the  Serbian  Army  had  ceased 
to  exist.  The  retreat  across  the  Albanian  moun- 
tains in  the  snow  had  left  it  no  more  than  a 
rabble  of  literally  starving  men.  Yet  in  May,  1917, 
the  Serbian  Army  was  in  being  again.  It  was  cer- 
tainly reduced  to  less  than  a  third  of  its  original  num- 
bers, but  it  was  a  fighting  force  once  more,  and  stood 
by  the  side  of  its  Allies  at  Salonica. 

This  reconstruction,  or  rather  re-creation,  of  the 
Serbian  Army  is  one  of  the  finest  feats  of  organisa- 
tion that  the  Allies  have  performed  in  the  whole 
war.  The  credit  of  it  is  due  not  only  to  the  unquench- 
able patriotism  and  spirit  of  the  Serbs  but  to  the 
resourcefulness,  the  energy  and  the  tact  of  the  "  Mili- 
tary Missions,"  one  of  which  was  sent  out  by  each  of 
the  Allied  Powers  to  meet  that  rout  of  half -demented 
survivors  of  the  sufferings  of  Albania,  to  feed  them, 
clothe  them,  equip  them,  help  them  to  get  back  their 
military  efficiency  and  finally  transport  them  to  our 
base  in  the  Balkans,  from  where  they  might  begin 
again  their  struggle  against  the  tyrannical  invaders 
of  their  country. 

The  terrible  story  of  the  retreat  across  Albania  has 
been  vividly  told  by  those  who  went  through  it.  There 
is  no  record  in  history  of  so  ghastly  a  march.  It 

123 


124        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

surpasses  in  horror  the  story  of  the  Grande  Armee's 
withdrawal  from  Moscow.  The  tracks  the  starving 
host  followed  through  the  snow-covered  mountains 
were  marked  by  a  trail  of  corpses.  Austrian  prison- 
ers and  Serbian  civilians  were  mixed  haphazard  with 
the  disorganised  army.  The  former  were  "  marching 
towards  Scotland  through  the  snow,"  as  I  heard  a  sur- 
vivor of  the  retreat  describe  it,  for  the  English  Gov- 
ernment had  offered  to  find  accommodation  in  Scot- 
land for  the  Austrian  prisoners  of  Serbia.  Few  of 
the  Serbian  civilians  survived  their  sufferings.  The 
banks  of  the  Skumbi  river  were  strewn  for  days  with 
the  corpses  of  well-dressed  men,  women  and  children, 
refugees  from  Belgrade,  whose  strength  had  failed  in 
fording  the  stream.  They  lay  there  till  the  dogs 
devoured  them. 

Literally  without  any  food  at  all  for  days  together 
the  long  files  of  wretched  men  plodded  on  through 
rain  and  snow  over  precipitous  goat-tracks  and 
through  waist-deep  marshes.  Often  they  had  to  turn 
and  drive  off  attacks  from  the  treacherous  Albanians, 
and  many  a  man  preferred  death  by  his  own  rifle  or 
by  sinking  into  the  fatal  sleep  of  utter  exhaustion  in 
the  snow,  to  a  continuance  of  such  sufferings. 

And  it  is  morally  certain  that  even  the  strongest 
who  kept  on  through  it  all  to  the  end  would  have  died 
when  they  reached  the  coast  of  the  Adriatic  if  it  had 
not  been  for  the  system  of  food-supply  which  the 
Allies  organised.  At  Scutari  many  men  did  not  touch 
food  for  six  days.  The  officers  were  able  to  buy  a 
little  bread  at  twelve  to  fifteen  shillings  a  loaf. 

The  British  Military  Mission,  whose  headquarters 
had  now  been  established  at  Rome,  had  organised  with 


RESURRECTION  OF  THE  SERBIAN  ARMY      125 

great  difficulty  a  service  of  pack-animal  food-convoys 
from  Medua  to  supply  the  Serbians  at  Scutari.  The 
apprehension  that  the  food  ships  might  be  attacked 
by  the  Austrians  delayed  their  sailing.  One  ship, 
indeed,  went  down  with  a  loss  of  sixty  English  A.S.C. 
details. 

The  Serbs  were  so  exhausted,  however,  that  for  a 
few  days  it  looked  as  though  they  would  never  find 
the  heart  to  make  another  effort.  But  if  the  Serbian 
Army  was  yet  to  be  saved  they  must  once  more  set 
out  on  another  march  of  five  or  six  days,  over  swampy 
ground  and  in  danger  of  attack  from  the  Albanians, 
as  far  as  Valona.  To  have  embarked  them  north  of 
that  port  would  have  been  to  take  a  big  risk  of  attack 
from  the  Austrian  fleet  lying  at  Cattaro. 

The  only  way  to  encourage  the  Serbs  to  start  out 
again  for  Durazzo  was  to  create  food  depots  along  the 
road.  The  decision,  indeed,  to  make  the  Serbs  under- 
take this  fresh  journey  was  a  desperate  one.  The  men 
were  so  weakened  by  dysentery  that  many  were  sim- 
ply swallowed  in  the  marshes  on  the  road,  not  having 
enough  strength  to  struggle  out  of  them.  On  this 
part  of  their  journey  to  safety  the  British  Mission 
saved  thousands  of  lives.  They  organised  ferries 
across  the  rivers,  improved  the  road  in  the  worst 
places,  and  saw  to  it  that  the  dispirited  soldiers  had 
enough  but  not  more  than  enough  food  to  take  them 
on  their  way,  for  after  their  weeks  of  starvation  many 
of  them  tended  to  eat  more  than  their  enfeebled  con- 
stitutions would  stand,  and  so  died  when  their  hard- 
ships were  all  but  over. 

From  Valona  the  Serbs  were  transported  by  the 
French  very  expeditiously  to  Corfu.  The  80,000 


126        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

men  who  marched  down  from  Scutari  were  increased 
to  130,000  by  another  contingent  which  had  made 
straight  for  Valona.  But  even  when  the  safety  of 
Corfu  was  reached  the  exhausted  Serbs  were  still  in 
a  desperate  condition.  The  Serbian  Government  has 
since  bought  the  land  where  many  of  them  are  buried 
in  the  little  island  opposite  Corfu  town  that  was 
used  as  a  quarantine  station,  and  on  it  a  memorial  will 
be  raised  after  the  war  to  those  who  died  there. 

It  took  some  time  to  organise, — in  abominable 
weather, — the  housing  and  feeding  of  the  dispirited 
host  at  Corfu.  The  Allied  Missions  only  arrived  there 
a  week  before  the  men,  and  transport  had  to  be  im- 
ported and  piers  built  for  the  supply  of  so  great  a 
multitude. 

The  refitting  and  re-equipment  of  the  Serbian 
Army  had  been  arranged  by  an  Allied  conference  at 
Paris.  The  French  provided  rifles  and  artillery,  and 
the  feeding  and  clothing  of  the  destitute  army  was 
shared  in  equal  proportions  by  France  and  England. 

Gradually,  as  the  spring  drew  on,  the  Serbians  got 
back  their  strength  again,  and  the  work  of  re-organis- 
ing them  into  an  army  could  be  begun. 

Another  and  equally  difficult  process,  however,  yet 
remained  to  be  performed.  The  Serbs  had  to  be 
transported  to  Salonica  through  waters  where  enemy 
submarines  were  waiting  for  this  very  chance.  So 
closely  did  they  keep  their  watch  on  the  island  that 
they  were  even  seen  by  Serbian  troops  at  drill  on  the 
shore.  The  French  are  responsible  for  the  organising 
of  this  transport  of  the  Serbs  to  Salonica,  and  they 
did  it  extremely  well.  Fifteen  transports  and  two 
auxiliary  cruisers  were  available  for  the  work,  each 


RESURRECTION  OF  THE  SERBIAN  ARMY      127 

vessel  making  three-and-a-half  voyages  a  month. 
The  first  shipload  of  Serbs  reached  Salonica  on  April 
15th,  and  the  last  had  arrived  several  days  before  the 
end  of  May. 

Not  a  man  was  lost  on  the  voyage,  and  greatly 
though  this  redounds  to  the  secrecy  and  efficiency  with 
which  the  French  made  their  plans,  much  of  the  credit 
is  also  due  to  the  British  trawlers  which  helped  to 
escort  the  Serbian  troopships,  patrolling  and  sweep- 
ing up  mines  in  the  waters  through  which  they  were 
to  pass.  The  transports  left  Corfu  in  pairs  with  an 
escort  of  destroyers.  They  would  start  out  as  if 
heading  for  Marseilles  or  Bizerta,  and,  when  away 
from  the  island,  alter  course  and  zigzag  the  rest  of 
the  way  to  Salonica.  The  enemy  submarine  com- 
manders certainly  missed  a  remarkably  good  oppor- 
tunity. It  can  scarcely  be  that  they  were  lulled  into 
inactivity  by  the  negotiations  that  were  carried  on  as 
a  bluff  by  the  Allies  with  the  Greek  Government  for 
the  transport  of  the  Serbians  from  Patras  overland. 

Special  piers  had  been  built  for  the  arrival  of  the 
new  contingent  at  Micra,  a  deserted  spot  on  the  shores 
of  the  Gulf  of  Salonica  east  of  the  town,  and  there 
two  or  three  vessels  would  arrive  regularly  during 
the  night.  While  the  process  of  discharging  was 
going  on  French  gendarmes  kept  any  one  from  ap- 
proaching the  pier,  and  everything  in  connection  with 
their  arrival  was  carried  out  with  the  greatest  secrecy. 

An  entire  town  of  tents  and  huts  and  storehouses 
had  soon  sprung  up  on  the  empty  green  flats  of  Micra 
and  the  Vasilika  valley,  and  the  big,  brawny,  simple- 
mannered  men,  all  with  their  characteristically  shaped 
caps,  but  some  wearing  English  khaki  and  some 


128        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

French  horizon-blue,  began  to  add  yet  another  cos- 
tume to  the  motley  aspect  of  the  Salonica  streets. 

The  Serbs  even  possessed  the  nucleus  of  a  navy. 
Admiral  Troubridge,  who  was  in  command  of  the 
international  naval  division  which  helped  to  defend 
Belgrade,  had  arranged  for  the  training  of  about 
forty  men,  who  had  mostly  been  boatmen  on  the 
Danube,  by  cruises  in  British  warships.  They  wore 
British  uniform,  except  for  the  cap-ribbon,  and  the 
fact  that  the  officers  were  in  soldier's  khaki. 

Their  little  craft,  the  "  Greater  Serbia,"  was  an  old 
Greek  torpedo-boat  that  had  since  been  used  as  a 
ferry-boat  and  was  bought  by  the  Serbian  Govern- 
ment at  Corfu.  There  was  a  story  that  when  it  was 
about  to  be  brought  round  from  Corfu  to  Salonica, 
her  captain  applied  to  the  Allied  Military  Missions 
for  a  gun  to  be  mounted  on  board.  But  the  Allies 
gravely  replied  that  as  the  "  Greater  Serbia  "  would 
probably  make  the  voyage  to  Salonica  on  the  deck  of 
a  transport  they  considered  that  a  gun  was  hardly 
necessary. 

But,  though  unarmed,  the  little  steamer  with  the 
Serbian  ensign  at  the  stern  did  useful  though  humble 
work  at  Salonica  in  towing  men  and  stores  from  place 
to  place  on  the  shores  of  the  Gulf. 

It  was  a  remarkable  thing,  but  one  that  is  signifi- 
cant of  the  buoyancy  of  their  spirits,  that,  in  spite  of 
past  sufferings  and  present  exile,  the  Serbians  im- 
mediately on  their  arrival  at  Salonica  began  to  enter- 
tain their  comrades  of  the  other  Allied  Armies. 
They  showed  eagerness  to  make  closer  acquaintance 
with  them,  and  their  own  hospitality  and  frank,  open 
ways  caused  a  particularly  close  feeling  of  friendship 


RESURRECTION  OF  THE  SERBIAN  ARMY      129 

to  spring  up  between  the  Serbs  and  our  English  sol- 
diers, though  most  of  these  had  never  in  their  lives 
seen  a  Serbian  before,  nor  had  they  one  word  of  com- 
mon language.  The  Serbian  "  slava," — a  sort  of 
regimental  festival  and  feast, — became  a  new  feature 
in  the  social  life  of  Salonica,  though  it  was  one  which 
required  considerable  robustness  on  the  part  of  for- 
eign guests  unused  to  hospitality  on  the  Serbian 
scale. 

A  "  slava  "  would  begin  at  about  9  A.M.  It  is  an 
outdoor  affair,  and  the  first  hour  or  two  would  be  de- 
voted to  a  religious  service,  with  quaint  rites  like  the 
blessing  and  ceremonial  cutting-up  of  a  cake,  and  to 
military  parades  and  speeches, — slavas  usually  com- 
memorate the  exploits  of  some  hero  or  a  battle  against 
the  Turks  in  the  Middle  Ages,  for,  as  Mr.  Lloyd- 
George  has  since  said,  this  little  people  since  the 
fourteenth  century  has  kept  alive  the  memory  of  its 
defeat  by  the  Turks  in  the  sure  and  certain  hope  of 
ultimate  deliverance.  Then  about  eleven  o'clock,  at 
a  long  table  under  an  arbour  of  leaves,  the  officers  of 
the  regiment  and  their  guests  sit  down  to  lunch.  That 
lunch  would  last  till  three,  and  it  left  one  with  a  vivid 
idea  of  what  a  mediaeval  baronial  banquet  must  have 
been  like.  The  succession  of  courses,  many  of  them 
Serbian  national  dishes  of  unusual  composition, 
seemed  unending,  and  the  Colonel  of  the  regiment, 
whom  custom  required  not  to  sit  down  but  to  move 
constantly  about  looking  after  his  guests,  saw  to  it 
that  one's  glass  was  never  empty  for  the  frequent 
toasts  that  the  presence  of  so  many  Allies  of  different 
nationalities  made  necessary. 

Towards  the  end  of  luncheon  the  regimental  band 


would  appear  in  front  of  the  arbour,  followed  by  a 
rush  of  soldiers  who  join  hands  and  begin  to  dance  the 
"  Kola."  Like  most  national  dances  of  the  Balkans 
the  Kola  is  a  sort  of  sideways  shuffle  danced  by  any 
number  of  people,  hand  in  hand,  to  a  wailing  skirl  of 
flutes  supported  by  a  lot  of  banging  on  the  drum. 
The  Serbian  officers  would  spring  from  their  seats  to 
join  their  men  in  this  fandango,  which  would  go  on 
for  an  hour  together,  and  it  was  evidence  of  the  feel- 
ing of  being  at  home  with  which  the  easy-going  hos- 
pitality of  the  Serbs  filled  their  guests  that  English 
and  French  officers  would  be  drawn  in  too,  and  skip 
and  spring  and  caper  without  the  slightest  feeling  of 
making  themselves  conspicuous. 

The  unbroken  spirit  of  these  big-built  men  simply 
astonished  one.  They  had  gone  through  more  than 
any  nation  among  the  Allies.  In  each  of  the  six 
years  from  1912  to  1917  they  have  been  at  war.  Their 
losses  have  been  terrible.  There  is  very  little  of  the 
manhood  of  the  nation  left. 

The  whole  hope  of  the  regeneration  of  Serbia  lay, 
in  fact,  with  those  hundred  thousand  men  who  landed 
at  Micra  pier,  and  so  heavily  have  the  Serbs  lost  in 
the  fierce  fighting  that  they  have  since  waged  among 
the  rocky  hills  on  the  banks  of  the  Cerna  that  the 
repopulation  of  their  country,  when  it  has  been  won 
back  again,  will  be  a  problem  of  the  lack  of  fathers. 

Yet  it  is  rare  to  see  a  despondent  Serb.  '  Those 
are  my  wife  and  children,"  a  Serbian  officer  will  say, 
showing  you  a  photograph.  "  I  have  not  seen  them 
or  heard  of  them  since  we  left  Belgrade  in  October, 
1915.  I  have  tried  to  get  into  touch  with  them  by 
advertising  in  Swiss  papers,  which  the  Germans  al- 


RESURRECTION  OF  THE  SERBIAN  ARMY      131 

low  to  be  imported  into  Serbia,  but  I  have  had  no 
reply.  Whether  they  are  alive  or  dead,  whether  they 
have  money  or  are  starving,  even  whether  they  have 
been  allowed  to  remain  in  Serbia  at  all,  I  haven't  the 
vaguest  idea." 

It  is  with  such  heavy  griefs  weighing  upon  each 
individual's  mind  that  the  Serbian  Army  has  fought 
so  stoutly  and  that  it  yet  rejects  the  offer,  which  the 
Bulgars  and  Austrians  have  held  out,  of  bringing  this 
suspense  and  separation  to  an  end  on  the  inglorious 
terms  of  national  surrender. 

The  Serbian  Crown  Prince  Alexander  came  among 
the  first  to  Salonica,  but  his  dark,  aquiline  face  is  not 
often  seen  by  the  people  of  the  town.  When  he  is 
there  he  keeps  to  the  grounds  of  the  villa  that  is 
reserved  for  him  in  a  quiet  side-street,  studying,  as 
I  found  him  already  doing  on  the  morning  after  his 
arrival,  the  maps  which  cover  the  table  in  his  plainly 
furnished  workroom,  and  receiving  reports  from  the 
officers  of  his  staff.  His  father,  King  Peter,  for  whom 
he  acts  as  Regent,  had  reached  Salonica  from  Corfu 
earlier  in  the  year,  but  he  maintains  a  strict  seclu- 
sion. He  has  grown  a  beard  which  preserves  him 
from  recognition  by  any  stranger  who  may  catch  sight 
of  him,  and  except  for  a  short  visit  to  Vodena,  has 
hardly  left  his  house  in  Salonica. 

Prince  George  of  Serbia,  who  was  formerly  the 
heir  to  the  throne,  but  resigned  the  succession  to  his 
younger  brother,  is  a  familiar  figure  on  the  Serbian 
front.  Very  impetuous  and  entirely  offhand  in  his 
actions,  casually  dressed,  usually  in  a  couple  of  muddy 
raincoats,  the  one  underneath  longer  than  the  one 
on  top,  he  makes  no  parade  of  princedom.  "  He  is 


132        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

always  the  first  out  of  the  car  to  shove,"  says  an  Eng- 
lish officer  who  often  travels  with  him,  and  those  who 
have  motored  much  in  the  Balkans  know  how  often 
the  opportunity  for  energy  and  self-sacrifice  of  that 
kind  arises.  Prince  George's  readiness  to  expose 
himself  to  the  risks  of  the  firing-line  is  conspicuous. 
He  has  arrived  sometimes  in  the  front  lines  just 
before  an  attack  takes  place  and  has  gone  over  the 
parapet  with  the  men.  During  this  summer  of  1917, 
indeed,  the  Prince  has  had  his  horse  shot  under  him 
while  reviewing  Salonica  troops  close  up  to  the  front. 

One  may  be  permitted  while  on  the  subject  of  the 
Serbians  to  remark  upon  a  happy  innovation  which 
the  British  Government  has  introduced  into  the  main- 
tenance of  our  relations  with  them.  This  is  the  at- 
tachment to  the  staff  of  the  Serbian  Crown  Prince  of 
a  senior  British  officer  of  wide  experience  in  the  per- 
son of  Vice- Admiral  E.  T.  Troubridge.  Admiral 
Troubridge  had  greatly  assisted  in  the  defence  of  Bel- 
grade during  the  autumn  of  1915  when  in  command 
of  an  international  naval  force  there.  He  organised  a 
flotilla  of  gunboats  on  the  Danube  and  his  naval  guns 
were  some  of  the  most  efficient  artillery  that  the 
Serbian  capital  possessed.  After  accompanying  the 
Serbian  Army  in  its  desperate  retreat  across  Albania, 
the  Admiral  was  sent  out  again  to  the  Balkans  to  be 
attached  to  the  Serbian  Crown  Prince  and  to  take 
command  of  the  naval  brigade  that  might  have  been 
despatched  there  had  the  campaign  made  progress. 

But  the  services  which  so  experienced  an  officer  has 
been  able  to  render  to  the  relations,  sometimes  deli- 
cate, between  ourselves  and  the  Serbs,  have  been  more 
valuable  even  than  those  of  an  artillery  commander  in 


the  field.  With  the  knowledge  of  international  rela- 
tions which  a  former  Chief  of  the  War  Staff  possesses, 
and  with  the  assistance  of  such  an  expert  in  Balkan 
affairs  as  Commander  Alfred  Stead,  his  flag-officer, 
Admiral  Troubridge  has  done  more  than  any  one  indi- 
vidual to  keep  our  relations  with  the  Serbians  at  the 
degree  of  cordiality  and  confidence  which  has  always 
characterised  them.  When  our  attitude  in  some  mat- 
ter has  puzzled  the  Serbs  they  have  come  to  him  for 
explanation  and  reassurance.  When  they  have  had 
some  view  which  they  wished  to  put  before  our  Gov- 
ernment it  has  often  been  to  Admiral  Troubridge  that 
it  was  submitted  first.  This  role  of  super-liaison 
officer,  or  unofficial  military  ambassador  (for  the 
Serbian  nation  is  now  no  more  than  its  army),  is  one 
that  might  well  be  renewed  in  our  relations  with 
others  of  our  Allies;  though  it  is  true  that  its  value 
and  success  depend  entirely  upon  the  personality  and 
the  abilities  of  the  man  chosen  to  fulfil  it. 

And  while  the  whole  of  the  Serbian  nation  that  is 
free  is  now  based  upon  Salonica  as  an  army  in  the 
field,  the  machinery  of  the  Serbian  Government,  left 
without  a  country  to  administer,  has  waited  patiently 
at  Corfu.  Had  our  recapture  of  Monastir  been  fol- 
lowed, as  was  expected,  by  the  repulse  of  the  Bulgars 
as  far  as  Prilep,  the  Serbian  Ministry  would  have  been 
brought  back  onto  its  own  territory  and  regained  a 
limited  exercise  of  its  functions.  But  Monastir  is 
still  a  place  where  you  need  a  shrapnel  helmet  and  a 
gas-mask,  so  the  Government  of  Serbia  has  remained 
until  now  in  its  exile  at  Corfu. 

I  went  to  Corfu  in  the  spring  of  1917  and  was 
received  there  by  M.  Pasitch,  the  aged  Serbian  Prime 


134        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

Minister.  The  island  is  another  of  those  places  which 
the  war  has  strangely  transmogrified.  Despite  its 
five-storied,  green-shuttered,  Italian-looking  houses 
the  atmosphere  of  the  place  is  peculiarly  English,  but 
English  of  the  mid- Victorian  period,  when  we  aban- 
doned it  as  a  gift  to  the  since-ungrateful  Greeks. 
Though  you  will  hardly  find  an  Englishman  among 
the  Serbs,  Italians,  French  and  Greeks  who  at 
present  throng  its  streets,  the  stamp  of  our  occupa- 
tion was  solidly  enough  impressed  to  be  apparent 
still  at  every  turn. 

There  is  the  heavy,  portico-fronted  Government 
House,  in  the  neo-Doric  style,  which  is  the  reproduc- 
tion of  similar  official  buildings  that  British  architects 
were  putting  up  at  the  same  time  all  over  the  world, 
conservatively  regardless  of  considerations  of  climate 
or  convenience.  Here  you  have  the  trim  Parade- 
ground  or  Maidan  or  Belvedere,  with  its  inevitable 
classic  temple,  looking  as  if  it  might  be  a  part  of 
Tunbridge  Wells  in  the  Regency  days.  Here  is  the 
Hotel  St.  George  with  solid,  heavy,  shining  mahogany 
furniture,  and  a  big  tin  mid-nineteenth  century  tub 
that  is  produced  when  you  ask  for  a  bath.  The  very 
shops  and  arcades  persistently  remind  one  of  a  sleepy 
little  old-fashioned  English  country  town.  Randolph 
Caldecott  might  have  drawn  Widow  Blaize  looking 
out  of  those  quaint  little  square-paned  windows.  You 
feel  as  if  you  expected  to  meet  a  crinoline  or  a  bob- 
wig  at  every  street-corner. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  COMING  OF  THE  RUSSIANS  AND 
THE  ITALIANS 

SALONICA  is  a  very  museum  of  the  Allies. 
Of  the  principal  Allied  Armies  in  the  field  only 
representatives  of  the  Americans  and  Portu- 
guese are  lacking,  and  there  used  to  be  rumours  that 
even  they  were  coming.  In  the  Balkans  there  is  none 
of  the  isolation  that  keeps  the  armies  of  different  na- 
tionalities apart  in  France.  All  of  us  rub  shoulders 
at  our  common  base  of  Salonica.  The  Annamite  and 
the  Serbian  sit  side  by  side  in  the  tram  without  either 
finding  the  juxtaposition  odd.  A  brigade  of  blond 
Russians  may  be  relieved  by  a  brigade  of  black  Sene- 
galese. Italian,  Frenchman,  Englishman  and  Greek 
will  share  a  table  in  a  restaurant,  and  it  is  very  satis- 
factory to  find  that  in  spite  of  his  customary  igno- 
rance of  any  language  but  his  own, — in  which  respect 
he  is  no  worse  than  the  average  Frenchman,  how- 
ever,— the  Englishman  seems  as  generally  popular  all 
round  as  any  of  the  Allies.  He  fraternises  with  the 
Russian, — a  particularly  convivial  soul;  he  exchanges 
inarticulate  but  hearty  handshakes  with  the  Serb;  he 
embarks  courageously  upon  conversations  in  his  best 
Rouen  French  with  the  Frenchman ;  and  as  any  num- 
ber of  the  Italians  speak  English,  he  gets  on  all  right 
with  them. 

But  what  a  curse  the  obstacles  of  language  are,  and 

135 


136        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

how  much  envy  is  aroused  by  the  galling  fluency  of 
that  Englishman  over  there,  whose  parents  sent  him 
to  live  in  France  at  an  age  when  most  of  us  were  at  a 
private  school.  Of  course  French  is  the  common 
tongue  of  the  Allied  Armies,  but  few  Englishmen 
can  really  speak  it  well  enough  to  make  conversa- 
tion a  pleasure, — especially  for  the  Frenchman  whose 
ear  is  so  sensitive  to  maltreatment  of  his  beautiful 
tongue.  I  have  a  scheme  for  after  the  war  for  which 
I  have  already  obtained  the  approval  of  Frenchmen 
who  suffer  from  the  barrier  of  tongues  as  we  do.  It 
is  this:  When  peace  comes  it  will  leave  the  French- 
man,— it  may  be  said  between  ourselves, — with  an  in- 
creased respect  for  English  institutions  and  particu- 
larly for  the  character  which  is  the  unique  educational 
product  of  the  English  public  school;  it  will  leave  the 
Englishman  with  an  increased  respect  for  the  bril- 
liance and  intelligence  of  the  French;  and  with  a 
determination  that  his  sons,  at  least,  shall  not  be  so 
tongue-tied  as  their  father  was  directly  he  left  his  own 
country.  Many  French  parents  will  want  their  sons 
to  have  an  education  on  the  English  system, — games, 
prefects,  corporal  punishment,  esprit  de  corps, — that 
has  produced  the  keen,  sporting,  gallant  type  of 
Englishman  he  has  come  to  respect,  but  the  French- 
man hates  sending  his  boy  abroad;  he  does  not  like 
going  abroad  himself;  France  is  very  properly  the 
cream  of  the  earth  for  him.  And  the  Englishman 
does  not  care  to  send  his  son  to  a  French  lycee  of  the 
present  type,  great  though  the  advantage  of  learning 
the  French  language  well  may  be,  because  he  does  not 
wish  the  boy  to  lose  the  character-training  of  an  Eng- 
lish public  school. 


COMING  OF  RUSSIANS  AND  THE  ITALIANS      137 

A  big  inter- Ally  school  in  France,  therefore,  with 
English  masters  and  organised  on  public-school  lines, 
would  meet  both  these  cases.  The  English  boy  will 
learn  the  language  of  the  country  and  still  live  under 
the  same  regime  as  if  he  had  gone  to  a  school  at  home, 
and  the  French  boy  will  benefit  from  the  same  treat- 
ment. 

To  get  the  right  spirit  from  the  start,  the  best  way 
to  bring  the  scheme  into  being  would  perhaps  be  to 
bring  about  the  amalgamation  of  some  existing  Eng- 
lish school  with  a  well-known  lycee  in  France.  The 
thing  would  want  carrying  out  well  in  the  way  of 
buildings  and  equipment,  and  it  ought  to  form  a  spe- 
cial sort  of  tie  between  the  Allied  countries. 

The  two  Russian  brigades  that  began  to  arrive  on 
July  30th  brought  flat  caps  and  sad-coloured  linen 
blouses  as  an  addition  to  the  assortment  of  military 
costumes  which  throng  the  streets  of  Salonica.  The 
men  composing  them  were  all  volunteers  for  service 
abroad,  and  were  remarkable  for  their  size.  They 
seemed  to  average  at  least  thirteen  stone. 

They  marched  up  to  their  camp  at  Zeitenlick,  where 
they  had  three  months  of  vigorous  training.  People 
used  to  turn  off  the  Lembet  road  to  see  the  Russians* 
practising  a  charge.  The  line  of  hundreds  of  long, 
thin  Lebel  bayonets,  each  with  a  heavy  Russian  shout- 
ing behind  it,  looked,  as  it  came  sweeping  over  a  rise 
in  the  ground,  about  as  formidable  a  thing  as  you 
could  find  in  the  way  of  human  mechanism  of  the 
battlefield. 

I  was  with  these  same  Russians  during  part  of 
their  march  up  to  the  front  before  Monastir  in 
October.  It  was  beautiful  to  go  into  the  little  Greek 


138        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

church  of  a  village  near  which  they  camped  for  the 
night  and  hear  the  deep -toned,  musical  Gregorian 
chanting  of  the  responses  from  the  mass  of  devout  and 
stalwart  soldiers  crowded  together  in  the  dim  light  of 
the  tapers  feebly  flickering  before  tawdry  pictures  of 
Orthodox  saints. 

On  August  10th,  only  a  few  days  before  the  battle 
of  Ostrovo,  related  in  the  last  chapter,  the  first  de- 
tachments of  a  very  strong  Italian  division,  the  35th, 
under  General  the  Marquis  Petiti  di  Roreto,  one  of 
General  Cadorna's  most  trusted  lieutenants,  arrived 
at  Salonica. 

They  surprised  the  rest  of  the  Allied  Army  in  the 
Balkans.  Very  few  indeed  of  us  had  then  seen  Italian 
soldiers  in  the  field  in  this  war.  And  we  had  not  ex- 
pected troops  of  such  excellent  quality.  The  men 
were  rather  on  the  small  side,  perhaps,  but  they  were 
solid  and  stocky  and  bronzed  by  months  of  fighting 
in  the  Trentino.  The  smartness  of  the  turnout  of 
both  officers  and  rank  and  file  struck  one  at  once  and 
has  never  since  varied.  The  men's  equipment  is  of  a 
greenish-coloured  leather  that  harmonises  with  the 
slate-grey  of  their  uniform.  The  officers'  clothes  are 
cut  with  a  graceful  line  that  makes  them  picturesque 
without  detracting  from  a  soldierly  appearance. 
There  is  a  touch  of  brightness  in  the  white  neckcloth 
just  showing  above  the  collar  that  takes  away  from 
the  dullness  of  a  field-kit,  and  on  the  collar  itself  are 
pretty  gorget-patches  varying  in  colour,  shape  and 
material  with  the  wearer's  corps.  An  Italian  officer 
tilts  his  smart,  black-vizored  kepi  at  a  hardly  discern- 
ible angle,  but  for  all  their  well-dressed  appearance 
the  frequency  of  the  blue  ribbon  of  the  medal  for 


COMING  OF  RUSSIANS  AND  THE  ITALIANS      139 

valour  on  the  chests  of  these  slim  young  soldiers  and 
the  bullet-tattered  colours  of  their  regiments  were 
signs  that  they  were  no  carpet-knights, — as  indeed 
they  soon  proved  by  their  remarkable  efficiency  in  the 
Balkans. 

Their  march  through  Salonica  from  the  Quay  was 
watched  with  friendly  curiosity  by  crowds.  Walking 
alone,  but  of  a  stature  that  would  have  made  him  con- 
spicuous anywhere,  was  their  General,  Petiti  di  He- 
reto, an  Anak  among  men,  about  six  feet  four  high  and 
vast  in  breadth  and  solidity,  who  has  since  been  pro- 
moted to  the  command  of  an  Army  Corps  in  Italy. 
It  was  he  who  three  months  later,  while  in  Monastir 
a  few  days  after  its  capture,  was  badly  wounded  in 
the  leg  by  a  shell  which  killed  several  men  close  to 
him.  Two  of  the  orderlies  who  were  with  him  tried 
to  lift  their  huge  general  to  carry  him  to  cover,  but 
could  not  move  him,  so  they  ran  off  to  get  help,  leav- 
ing General  Petiti  to  the  care  of  a  little  Italian  soldier 
about  one-third  his  size,  who,  as  the  shells  continued  to 
burst  near,  kept  on  exclaiming,  "  Courage,  General!  " 
with  such  buoyancy  that  the  prostrate  general,  despite 
the  pain  of  his  wound,  could  not  help  chuckling  in  his 
white  beard.  In  February  of  this  year  I  went  to 
stay  with  General  Petiti  at  his  headquarters  at 
Tepavci.  He  had  just  come  back  from  the  Italian 
Hospital  in  Salonica  to  rejoin  his  division,  although 
his  wound  was  not  yet  healed. 

The  Italians  needed  no  time  to  re-organise  on  land- 
ing at  Salonica.  They  went  up  on  September  1st  to 
take  over  a  sector  of  the  Allied  front-line,  along 
the  Krusha-Balkan  heights  which  faced  the  Bela- 
shitza  range,  and  carry  our  front  round  from  the 


140        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

end  of  the  Vardar-Doiran  sector  to  the  Struma 
valley.  There  they  had  an  English  division  on 
their  right  and  a  French  colonial  division  on  their 
left.  The  division  which  the  Italians  relieved  was 
also  French. 

The  front  they  were  to  hold  was  twenty-seven  miles 
long.  It  had  as  yet  no  wire  in  front  of  it,  except  about 
the  scattered  redoubts  that  took  the  place  of  a  con- 
tinuous line  of  trenches.  It  looked  across  the  broad 
green  valley  to  the  high  wall  of  the  Belashitza  beyond. 
Down  this  valley  runs  the  line  from  Salonica  to  Con- 
stantinople after  its  sharp  turn  to  the  east  at  Doiran. 
There  were,  however,  four  isolated  posts  right  across 
the  valley  at  the  foot  of  the  Belashitza  (Upper  Poroi, 
Palmis  and  two  others),  which  the  French  had  occu- 
pied. Each  of  the  four  villages  was  held  by  one 
company,  and  was  so  far  from  the  possibility  of  sup- 
port that  General  Petiti  decided  to  evacuate  them. 
But  on  the  day  fixed  for  this, — it  was  in  the  middle 
of  September, — the  Bulgars  suddenly  attacked  Poroi 
with  a  battalion  and  a  half,  under  cover  of  a  barrage 
from  the  Bulgarian  guns  up  on  the  steep  Belashitza 
slopes  behind. 

The  Italians  could  do  nothing  to  silence  these 
batteries,  for  it  was  a  curious  circumstance  im- 
posed by  the  formation  of  the  ground  in  this 
sector  that  the  artillery  of  either  side  was  out  of 
range  of  the  other.  Each  side  had  its  guns  on  the 
hills  dominating  the  flat  valley  between  and  neither 
could  do  more  than  put  up  extreme  range  barrages  to 
cover  its  own  infantry  in  an  attack.  The  Italian 
company  at  Poroi  was  ordered  to  hold  on  there  to  the 
last,  in  order  to  cover  the  retreat  of  the  three  com- 


COMING  OF  RUSSIANS  AND  THE  ITALIANS      141 

panics  in  the  other  isolated  villages.  It  was  impos- 
sible to  send  out  troops  to  reinforce  these  little  out- 
posts owing  to  the  concentrated  and  continuous 
enemy  barrage.  So  that,  although  three  of  the  com- 
panies got  back  by  noon  to  the  Italian  lines,  the 
fourth,  protecting  their  retreat  at  Poroi,  became  sur- 
rounded. It  might  then  have  surrendered,  its  duty 
done,  and  hope  of  extricating  itself  being  gone,  but 
instead  continued  fighting  all  the  afternoon.  Night 
came,  and  still  the  rattle  of  their  rifles  and  machine- 
guns  did  not  cease.  It  was  not  until  next  day  after 
thirty-six  hours  of  resistance,  when  their  ammunition 
must  have  been  exhausted,  that  the  gallant  two  hun- 
dred or  what  was  left  of  them  brought  their  struggle 
to  an  end,  probably  by  a  charge,  for  cries  of  "Avanti, 
Savoia! "  rang  out  across  the  valley  to  the  saddened 
hearing  of  their  comrades  back  on  the  Krusha-Balkan. 
Then  followed  silence. 

The  first  encounter  of  the  Italians  with  the  Bulgars 
had  ended,  not  triumphantly,  but  with  all  the  honours 
of  war  upon  the  side  of  our  Allies. 

When  the  57th  French  Division  on  the  Italian 
left  was  ordered  away  from  the  Krusha-Balkan  to  the 
Monastir  front,  the  Italians  at  very  short  notice  took 
over  part  of  their  line,  and  at  the  beginning  of  Octo- 
ber, at  the  other  end  of  their  sector,  they  made  a 
demonstration  attack  against  Butkovo  Djuma  to 
assist  the  Serbians  in  their  fighting  in  front  of  Monas- 
tir, in  the  same  way  as  we  at  the  same  time  attacked 
Zir,  Bala  and  Yenikeuy. 

But  at  the  end  of  November  the  Italians  were 
withdrawn  from  the  Krusha-Balkan  front. 

The  excellence  of  the  roads,  bridges  and  hutments 


142        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

that  they  had  built,  and  the  readiness  with  which  they 
helped  our  men  in  the  process  of  settling  in,  made  a 
great  impression  on  the  English. 

One  of  their  brigades  had  the  previous  month  gone 
up  to  Monastir;  it  was  their  headquarters  in  the 
newly  captured  city  that  General  Petiti  was  visiting 
when  he  was  wounded.  The  rest  of  the  Italian 
division  now  moved  up  the  same  way  and  by  the 
end  of  December,  1916,  had  taken  over  the  ground 
that  the  Serbs  and  the  French  had  won  in  the  loop 
of  the  Cerna  river. 

Of  all  the  desolate  country  included  in  the  long  line 
of  the  Allies  in  the  Balkans  I  think  that  ten  miles  of 
front  in  the  "  U  "  that  the  Cerna  makes  on  the  east 
of  Monastir  is  the  most  dreary.  Not  a  tree  grows 
there ;  hardly  a  shrub.  It  is  a  savage  waste  of  stones 
and  rocks  and  boulders  and  ravines;  the  mountain- 
side slopes  steeply;  close  ahead  of  you  lowers  the  for- 
bidding skyline  of  fierce  crags  and  formidable  cliffs. 
Except  for  infrequent  and  miserable  hamlets  like 
Brod,  and  Veliselo  and  Tepavci,  of  a  squalor  unusual 
even  in  Macedonia,  there  is  no  sign  of  human  habita- 
tion. Behind  you  lies  the  fertile  flat  of  the  plain  of 
Monastir,  with  the  Cerna  marshes  gleaming  in  the 
light,  and  beyond,  fifteen  miles  away,  the  fair  pros- 
pect of  the  well-tilled  mountains  that  bar  off  Lake 
Prespa.  On  that  side  much  beauty,  but  ahead  noth- 
ing but  barren,  unrelenting  slopes.  And  if  you  took 
your  eyes  from  the  distant  prospect,  to  examine  more 
closely  the  ground  about  you,  what  you  saw  there 
was  grimmer  still,  for  the  rough  surface  of  the  ground 
was  covered  with  an  extraordinary  litter  of  war- 
material  abandoned  by  the  German  troops  who  had 


COMING  OF  RUSSIANS  AND  THE  ITALIANS      143 

unavailingly  been  hurried  here  to  stiffen  the  Bulgar- 
ians in  their  resistance  to  the  Serbian  advance  beyond 
the  Cerna,  which  gradually  levered  the  enemy  out  of 
Monastir.  Unexploded  hand-grenades  lay  so  thick 
that  it  was  almost  dangerous  to  walk  and  certainly 
dangerous  to  ride  about.  There  is  a  sort  of  German 
drumstick  bomb  which  explodes  five  seconds  after  you 
pull  a  string;  sometimes  bombs  of  this  kind  were 
covered  with  earth,  leaving  only  the  string  showing, 
and  inquisitive  Serbian  and  Italian  soldiers  occa- 
sionally would  pull  at  these  strings  to  see  what  was  at 
the  other  end  of  them,  with  results  fatal  to  themselves. 
Bayonets,  smashed  and  twisted  rifles,  the  fragments 
and  fish-tails  of  aerial  torpedoes,  grey  German  hel- 
mets and  enough  gas-masks  to  equip  a  brigade  were 
scattered  everywhere.  And  it  was  curious,  one  of 
the  strange  little  contrasts  of  war,  on  this  desolate 
Macedonian  height,  to  pick  up  picture  postcards 
showing  the  Zoologischer  Garten,  or  some  Berlin  cafe 
that  one  had  known  well  in  years  gone  by,  addressed 
to  Fusilier  Jakob  Kautsky  or  to  Garde  jaeger  Wil- 
helm  Reinhardt,  with  those  trivial  little  messages  of 
news  and  love  from  home  which  the  German  soldiers, 
like  our  men,  receive.  Most  gruesome  of  all  the  relics 
of  the  fierce  fighting  that  had  taken  place  in  this 
Cerna  sector,  were  the  graves  of  the  German  dead. 
For  the  ground  had  been  too  hard  to  bury  them,  and 
the  mound  of  scraped-up  earth  and  stones,  built  in- 
stead over  the  body  where  it  fell,  had  often  been 
washed  away  by  the  winter  rains,  so  that  a  pair  of 
heavy  field-boots,  a  grey-clad  shoulder,  or  an  earthy 
hand  thrust  itself  out  from  the  grisly  heap.  A  thank- 
less land  to  fight  for,  it  must  have  seemed  to  these 


144        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

German  soldiers,  that  even  refused  them  burial  when 
they  were  dead. 

This  line,  when  the  Italians  took  it  over,  was  not 
well  entrenched,  but  they  set  to  work  on  it  with  all  the 
energy  and  skill  that  they  had  learnt  in  fighting 
among  the  rocks  of  the  Trentino.  The  Italians  are 
extraordinarily  efficient  at  mountain  engineering. 

Their  transport  system  is  another  matter  in  which 
they  especially  excel.  From  their  model  motor- 
transport  depot  at  the  base  to  the  topmost  hauling 
station  of  their  aerial  cable  ways  in  the  mountains, 
they  are  thoroughly  practical  and  efficient.  To  begin 
with,  the  Italians  have  only  two  types  of  motor-lorry, 
a  fact  which  greatly  simplifies  the  problem  of  spare 
parts  that  was  such  a  nightmare  to  the  transport  of 
other  armies  in  the  Balkans.  They  have  a  25  h.p. 
30-hundredweight  Fiat  lorry  and  a  little  1-ton  Itala 
of  14  "  mule-power,"  as  the  Italian  M.T.  officers  call 
it,  because  it  will  go  up  the  steepest  slopes  over  the 
roughest  surfaces. 

The  Italian  Division's  use  of  the  single  railway 
line  which  they  had  to  share  with  the  French,  Serbs 
and  Russians  used  to  be  limited  to  eighteen  trucks  a 
day  as  far  as  Sakulevo.  They  supplemented  this, 
however,  by  long  distance  motor  transport  on  the 
road. 

To  get  stores  from  Sakulevo  to  Brod  on  the  Cerna 
gave  them  another  occasion  for  showing  ingenuity. 
The  little  Sakulevo  river  flows  from  Sakulevo  to 
Brod,  where  it  falls  into  the  Cerna,  and  the  Italians 
partly  economise  the  use  of  the  eight  miles  of  road 
between  these  two  points  by  floating  supplies  in 
bridging-pontoons  down  the  river  with  the  stream. 


COMING  OF  RUSSIANS  AND  THE  ITALIANS       145 

Two  pontoons  lashed  together  with  two  or  three  men 
to  steer  them  carry  two  tons,  and  at  Brod  the  pon- 
toons, when  unloaded,  are  simply  sent  back  in  the 
lorries  which  would  otherwise  have  to  return  empty 
to  Sakulevo.  As  a  caustic  English  officer  said,  "  In 
our  army  we  could  not  have  done  a  thing  like  that 
without  correspondence  with  the  Admiralty  and  the 
appointment  of  a  naval  transport  officer." 

But  the  specialty  of  the  Italian  organisation  is 
their  aerial  railways,  which  they  call  "  Telefericas." 
These  aerial  cable  ways  carry  steel  baskets  which  take 
five  hundredweight,  one  basket  each  way  each  trip, 
moving  at  five  miles  an  hour.  The  power  comes 
from  a  16  h.p.  motor  engine  at  the  higher  end  of  the 
line,  supported  on  a  framework  of  steel,  which  is 
ballasted  with  stones.  The  cables  are  slung  on  sup- 
ports of  hollow  steel  tubing.  The  whole  installation 
can  be  taken  down  and  carried  away  in  loads  of  quite 
moderate  weight,  and  the  effect  of  the  Telef erica  is  to 
make  what  would  otherwise  be  the  hardest  part  of 
the  transport  route  the  easiest.  Lightness  and  trans- 
portability are  prominent  characteristics  of  all  Ital- 
ian material ;  their  tents  even  are  less  bulky  though  no 
less  comfortable  than  ours,  and  the  big  mess-tents  are 
of  a  picturesque  rakish  design  that  calls  to  mind  the 
pavilion  of  a  Roman  general,  just  as  the  splendid 
swing  with  which  an  Italian  officer  throws  the  end 
of  his  long  grey  cloak  across  his  body  and  back  over 
his  shoulder  must  be  the  direct  descendant  of  a  similar 
gesture  with  the  toga. 

Staying  at  the  Italian  headquarters  mess  reminded 
me  of  nothing  so  much  as  being  at  a  Swiss  winter- 
sports  hotel.  You  came  out  of  a  driving  snowstorm 


146        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

through  a  draught-proof  wooden  door  into  the  electri- 
cally lighted  marquee,  warmed  by  one  of  those  black 
Tuscany  stoves  called  from  their  shape  porcolini,  with 
a  tray  of  water  on  the  top  to  prevent  the  air  from  get- 
ting too  dry.  The  cooking  was  most  excellent;  the 
mess  waiters  had  acquired  their  skill  at  the  Carlton 
or  the  Savoy,  and  similar  hotels  in  every  capitol  of 
Europe.  A  thing  one  noticed  was  that  hardly  any- 
body drank  even  wine,  while  there  was  no  sign  at  all 
of  the  vermouth,  the  whiskey,  the  port  and  liqueurs 
without  which  we  English  should  find  life  on  cam- 
paign miserable  indeed. 

The  Italians  had  a  hard  time  during  the  winter  in 
this  exposed  sector;  in  January  they  evacuated  250 
cases  of  frostbite,  as  many  men  as  were  sent  down 
wounded  during  the  same  period. 

The  chief  feature  of  the  enemy  position  over  against 
them  was  the  precipitous  height  of  Hill  1050.  This 
peak  on  the  left  of  their  front  was  first  captured  by 
the  2me  bis  Zouaves  on  November  20th,  under  the 
command  of  General  Misitch, — an  action  for  which 
they  were  awarded  the  distinction  of  the  fourragere. 
When  the  Italians  took  over  Hill  1050  they  estab- 
lished an  observation-post  there  which  was  of  great 
value  to  them,  and  it  was  to  prevent  this  use  of  the 
crest  that  the  German  Garde  jaeger  launched,  on  the 
evening  of  February  12th,  the  first  flame  attack  they 
made  in  the  Balkans.  Just  as  darkness  fell  tongues 
of  fire  and  dense  stifling  clouds  of  black  and  sooty 
smoke  leapt  suddenly  from  the  German  front  line, 
which  was  close  up  to  the  Italian  positions  on  the 
hill.  The  burning  liquid  ran  down  the  steep  incline 
of  the  Italian  trenches,  destroying  everything  it  met 


\Official  Photograph. 


AN    EVENING    CONVOY   ON 
THE   KOPR1VA   ROAD. 


COMING  OF  RUSSIANS  AND  THE  ITALIANS      147 

with.  The  enemy  followed  up  their  surprise  by  an 
immediate  infantry  attack.  The  failing  light  made 
it  difficult  to  distinguish  friend  from  foe,  and  the 
Italians  were  driven  from  the  crest  of  1050,  and  from 
the  trenches  to  the  left  of  it,  towards  Piton  A,  losing 
200  men  to  the  destructive  flames.  But  after  occupy- 
ing these  trenches  the  Germans  were  held  up  by 
Italian  reserves  only  a  little  way  further  down  the 
slope,  and  General  Petiti,  informed  of  the  attack  by 
telephone,  immediately  ordered  a  counter-assault, 
which  was  renewed  again  and  again  throughout  that 
night  and  next  day  until  practically  all  the  lost 
trenches  were  taken  again  at  a  cost  of  three  officers 
and  eighty  men  killed  and  seventy  wounded.  On 
February  27th,  a  few  days  after  my  stay  in  the  Italian 
headquarters,  the  Italians  made  an  attempt  to  re- 
occupy  the  crest  of  the  hill  which  had  been,  since  they 
lost  it,  virtually  neutral  ground.  The  Germans,  how- 
ever, had  used  their  time  since  the  last  attack  in  min- 
ing the  summit,  and  though  the  Italians  won  it  back, 
taking  sixty-nine  prisoners,  it  was  only  to  have  a 
number  of  men  blown  into  the  air. 

But  although  the  advantage  of  position  was  so 
much  on  the  side  of  the  enemy  the  Italians  never  lost 
ground,  and  still  continue  to  hold  their  rockbound 
sector  in  the  Cerna  loop. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  BULGARIAN  SUMMER  OFFENSIVE 

OF  1916  AND  ITS  CHECK  BY  THE 

SERBS  AT  OSTROVO 

THE  seizure  of  Fort  Rupel  I  have  related  in 
a  chapter  on  our  relations  with  the  Greeks. 
It  effectively  blocked  one  of  our  most  feasible 
lines  of  advance.  Admittedly  the  fact  that  we  had 
no  railway  up  to  the  Struma,  but  only  the  hilly  Seres 
road,  would  have  made  a  march  on  Nevrokop  or 
Petritch  a  difficult  operation  from  the  point  of  view  of 
supply.  The  use  of  a  railway  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Rupel  pass  might  indeed  have  been  secured,  as  a 
glance  at  the  map  will  show,  by  driving  the  Bulgars 
off  their  hill-positions  behind  Doiran  town  so  as  to 
get  the  use  of  the  Junction — Salonica-Constantinople 
line  which  there  makes  a  right-angled  turn  to  the 
east.  The  attempt  to  free  this  corner  by  Lake  Doiran 
of  the  enemy  was  begun  in  the  late  summer  of  1916 
by  the  French,  abandoned  when  the  Bulgar  offensive 
from  Monastir  towards  Ostrovo  on  our  western  wing 
developed,  and  renewed  by  ourselves  in  April  and 
May,  1917,  when  the  elaborate  defences  and  heavy 
artillery  which  the  long  pause  had  enabled  the  Bulgars 
to  establish  there  proved  too  much  for  us. 

Their  descent  upon  Fort  Rupel, — a  movement  ar- 
ranged with  the  connivance  of  the  Greek  Government, 
whose  betrayal  of  their  territory  to  their  natural 

148 


BULGARIAN  SUMMER  OFFENSIVE  OF  1916      149 

enemies  had  been  purchased  by  a  German  loan, — to- 
gether with  its  sequel  of  an  advance  upon  Kavalla, — 
enabled  the  Bulgarians  immensely  to  improve  their 
strategical  position  in  the  Balkans,  for  they  thus 
linked  up  their  eastern  and  western  forces  between 
which  the  Greek  districts  of  Seres  and  Drama  had 
previously  been  a  wedge.  With  the  single  inconveni- 
ence of  bulk-breaking  at  the  Demir-Hissar  bridge 
over  the  Struma,  which  the  French  had  blown  up  in 
January,  1916,  train  communication  was  made  pos- 
sible from  Doiran  to  Okjilar,  in  the  part  of  Bulgaria 
that  comes  down  to  the  -^Egean.  When  we  moved 
up  to  our  positions  on  the  Krusha-Balkan  mountains 
and  the  Struma  river  our  guns  came  close  enough  to 
this  railway  to  stop  the  use  of  it  for  through  lateral 
communication,  though  in  the  thick  of  the  fighting 
which  resulted  in  the  taking  of  Yenikeuy  on  the 
Struma  in  October,  a  Bulgarian  train  loaded  with 
ammunition  deliberately  steamed  along  in  full  view, 
dumping  its  cargo  at  different  places,  and  got  safely 
away  again,  though  one  or  two  of  our  shells  seemed 
to  go  right  through  it. 

But  the  principal  advantage  to  the  Bulgars  by  their 
occupation  of  Greek  territory  between  the  Struma 
and  the  frontier  was  that  it  made  it  possible  for  them 
to  bring  reinforcements  and  supplies  from  Eastern 
Bulgaria  or  even  from  Turkey  all  the  way  by  train 
with  the  greatest  convenience ;  the  railway  on  the  east 
of  Seres  was  too  far  away  from  our  lines  for  us  to 
interfere  with  this  use  of  it. 

Later  on,  in  August,  when  the  Bulgarian  plans  for 
a  general  offensive  against  us  were  mature,  and  simul- 
taneously with  their  attack  upon  our  left  wing  which 


150        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

led  to  the  battle  of  Ostrovo,  they  advanced  further 
southwards  from  Rupel  to  the  Struma,  pushing  be- 
fore them  the  French  forces  that  were  beyond  the 
river.  Some  confused  fighting  took  place  during  the 
whole  of  one  day,  and  a  column  of  British  yeomanry 
was  sent  out,  which  carried  on  a  rearguard  action 
while  the  French  were  getting  back  over  the  Orliak 
bridge,  the  only  line  of  retreat  open  to  them.  This 
retirement  had  been  foreseen  as  inevitable,  should 
these  circumstances  arise,  owing  to  the  weakness  of 
our  force  compared  to  the  enemy.  The  object  of 
going  beyond  the  Struma  had  only  been  to  hold 
bridgeheads,  not  to  occupy  territory  permanently. 

But  events  on  the  Struma  were  of  small  importance 
in  comparison  with  the  Bulgarian  offensive  in  force 
upon  the  wing  of  the  Allied  front,  the  brunt  of 
which  fell  upon  the  Serbians,  who  had  lately  taken 
up  position  there  and  who  were  at  first  pressed  back 
as  far  as  Lake  Ostrovo. 

As  I  have  said  elsewhere,  when  the  construction  of 
the  entrenched  camp  was  finished  General  Sarrail 
began  to  move  his  forces  up  to  the  Greek  frontier  on 
the  other  side  of  which  the  Bulgars  were.  His  two- 
fold object  in  entrenching  himself  there  was  to  stall 
off  a  possible  enemy  advance  on  Salonica  at  as  great 
a  distance  as  possible  from  the  entrenched  camp,  and 
also  to  hold  the  enemy  along  the  whole  line,  while 
gradually  and  as  secretly  as  possible  concentrating 
troops  at  one  point  to  make  there  a  sudden  offensive 
movement  of  his  own. 

The  point  he  had  chosen  for  this  attack  was  the 
valley  of  the  Vardar.  It  was  chosen  because  the  rail- 
way ran  up  the  course  of  the  river,  and  a  modern  army 


BULGARIAN  SUMMER  OFFENSIVE  OF  1916      151 

must  have  a  railway  behind  it  if  it  is  to  fight  its  way 
any  distance. 

To  co-operate  with  this  plan,  the  British  Army  in 
Macedonia  thinned  out  its  line  on  the  Struma  (though 
faced  with  the  risk  of  a  reinforced  enemy  attack  from 
the  Bulgarian  division  concentrated  at  Xanthe,  and 
other  columns  advancing  from  the  north) ,  and  massed 
two  divisions  south  of  Doiran,  while  holding  two 
others  ready  to  move  there  also,  if  necessary,  to  give 
backing  to  the  French  in  their  thrust  up  the  Vardar 
valley.  This  attack  up  the  river  would  probably  have 
been  followed  by  a  push  from  Monastir.  But  Bar- 
rail's  plan  was  for  the  Vardar  operation  to  be  carried 
out  first,  both  to  draw  Bulgar  forces  to  that  sector  and 
to  make  it  appear  that  the  arrival  there  by  British 
troops  was  to  reinforce  and  not  replace  the  French. 

For  this  Vardar  attack  the  manifold  preparations 
necessary  were  meanwhile  being  made.  When  you 
want  to  go  anywhere  with  wheeled  traffic  in  the  Bal- 
kans you  have  first  of  all  to  build  a  road  in  the  direc- 
tion you  have  chosen.  This  General  Sarrail  had  done. 
He  had  furthermore  gathered  his  heavy  artillery, 
worked  out  a  scheme  of  transport,  arranged  the  sup- 
ply of  food  and  ammunition,  and  made  all  the  various 
dispositions  required  to  put  an  army  into  action  on  a 
certain  front. 

But  our  schemes  in  the  Balkans  have  never  been 
more  than  a  small  part  of  the  vast  operations  of  war 
going  on  all  round  Europe,  and  they  have  conse- 
quently always  been  controlled  and  conditioned  by 
considerations  arising  in  connection  with  other  thea- 
tres of  war.  It  is  the  function  of  the  Allied  War 
Council,  which  alone  has  the  means  of  seeing  the  mili- 


152        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

tary  situation  as  a  whole,  to  co-ordinate  movements  in 
all  these  different  zones  of  operations,  to  check  action 
although  it  may  appear  locally  desirable  in  one  place, 
to  order  an  offensive  in  spite  of  its  seeming  doomed 
to  failure  in  another, — all  for  reasons  arising  out  of 
strategical  considerations  of  the  widest  nature. 

On  such  legitimate  grounds  as  these,  no  doubt,  the 
prepared  offensive  of  the  Allies  in  the  Balkans  was 
delayed  by  successive  orders,  though  meanwhile  the 
local  tactical  situation  and  the  need  of  holding  enemy 
forces  there  obliged  General  Sarrail  to  make  a  limited 
attack  with  French  troops  at  Doiran  which  succeeded, 
under  cover  of  the  Anglo-French  artillery,  in  taking 
Tortoise  Hill  and  the  village  of  Doldzeli,  while  the 
Oxford  and  Bucks  Light  Infantry  co-operated  by 
taking  Horseshoe  Hill. 

It  was  reasons  of  higher  strategy  and  politics  which 
led  to  the  postponement  of  General  Sarrail's  attack. 
To  have  brought  the  Roumanian  Government  to  sign 
a  convention  of  alliance  was  a  diplomatic  triumph  for 
the  Allies,  but  there  yet  remained  a  period  of  ten 
doubtful  days  between  the  signature  of  that  conven- 
tion and  its  ratification  by  a  formal  declaration  of 
war  upon  Austria  and  Bulgaria.  During  those  ten 
days  Roumania  might  still  have  changed  her  mind, 
and  it  is  now  no  more  than  a  matter  of  history  how 
both  the  Central  Powers  and  ourselves  vied  in  bluff- 
ing against  each  other  (it  is  not  the  exact  word  in  our 
case,  but  none  conveys  the  impression  so  exactly) 
during  that  critical  period  while  the  adhesion  of  our 
new  Ally  yet  hung  suspended  in  the  balance. 

In  the  Balkans  the  pressure  which  the  Allies 
brought  to  bear  to  reassure  the  Roumanians  took  the 


- 
BULGARIAN  SUMMER  OFFENSIVE  OF  1916      153 

form  of  ordering  that  the  push  forward  up  the  Var- 
dar  valley  should  begin.  If  this  attack  met  with  suc- 
cess in  the  first  week's  fighting,  the  encouragement 
to  Roumania  to  clinch  her  entry  into  our  alliance 
would  be  considerable.  The  victorious  advance  of  the 
French  from  the  south  would  be  an  incentive  to  Rou- 
manians to  repeat,  even  though  under  more  difficult 
conditions,  their  own  march  upon  Sofia  of  1913. 

But  Bulgaria's  bluff  forestalled  ours.  It  was  her 
object  to  cow  the  Roumanians  into  continuing  their 
neutrality  by  putting  before  their  eyes  the  spectacle 
of  a  successful  Bulgarian  offensive  in  Macedonia. 
German  agents — who  swarmed  at  Bucharest,  which 
always  reminded  one  of  a  German  Residenz-Stadt 
rather  than  of  the  capital  of  an  independent  race, — 
together  with  the  Press  of  the  Central  Powers,  vehe- 
mently announced  that  the  moment  had  at  last  ar- 
rived when  the  Allies  would  be  driven,  not  only  back 
to  Salonica,  but  into  the  sea.  Owing  to  the  delays  of 
the  Allied  Governments  the  initiative  in  the  Balkans 
had,  indeed,  passed  to  the  enemy. 

All  the  disposition  of  the  French,  then,  had  to  be 
recast,  and  owing  chiefly  to  the  lack  of  bridges  over 
the  Vardar  it  took  a  fortnight  to  get  their  guns  from 
the  Vardar-Doiran  front  out  to  the  support  of  the 
Serbs,  who  needed  them  so  badly.  The  latter,  taken 
by  surprise  owing  to  connivance  in  the  Bulgarian 
advance  by  the  Greek  troops  on  the  frontier,  were 
driven  from  ridge  to  ridge  until  they  had  their  backs 
to  Lake  Ostrovo.  There  they  held  their  ground  until 
the  French  were  able  to  get  into  position  on  their 
left  flank.  When  that  had  been  accomplished  a 
counter-offensive  was  started  that  gradually,  with 


154        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

many  delays  and  checks,  carried  the  Allies  back  over 
all  the  ground  they  had  lost  and  eventually  into 
Monastir  itself. 

The  line  which  the  Bulgars  had  held  from  the  time 
they  captured  Monastir  in  November,  1915,  until  this 
attack  of  theirs  in  August,  1916,  lay  along  the  Serbo- 
Greek  frontier.  The  sector  on  which  they  now  ad- 
vanced was  limited  by  the  commanding  height  of 
Kaimakchalan  in  the  east  and  by  Lake  Prespa  in  the 
west. 

The  Serbs  were  separated  from  the  Bulgarians  by 
a  fringe  of  Greek  frontier-guards.  During  the  night 
of  August  17th  those  frontier-guards  unobtrusively 
withdrew,  leaving  the  way  clear  for  the  Bulgars  to 
press  on  and  attack  the  handful  of  scattered  Serbs  at 
Fiorina  with  all  the  advantage  of  surprise. 

The  Bulgar  advance  began  at  2  A.M.  Two  columns, 
each  of  one  regiment  of  infantry,  with  several  guns, 
marched  southwards  across  the  Greek  frontier  one 
through  Negocani,  the  other  through  Sakulevo  and 
Vrbeni.  The  concentration  and  the  preparations 
made  for  these  columns  to  move  had  been  carried 
out  secretly,  and  they  came  by  little-used  hill-tracks. 

The  feeble  Serbian  outposts  stationed  to  the  north 
of  Fiorina  could  no  nothing  but  retire  before  the 
overwhelmingly  superior  strength  of  the  Bulgars, 
though  they  offered  what  resistance  was  possible,  and 
when,  at  10.15  A.M.,  the  Bulgars  with  100  German 
pioneers  occupied  Fiorina  station,  which  is  three  miles 
from  the  town,  they  had  not  made  this  progress  with- 
out loss. 

But  the  advance  of  the  enemy  had  already  cut  off  all 
the  other  Serbian  irregulars  to  the  west  of  Fiorina, 


and  they  were  only  able  to  get  back  to  the  main  body 
of  their  army,  after  losing  120  killed  and  wounded,  by 
making  a  great  detour  through  the  mountains  south- 
wards, travelling  only  by  night  over  unknown  paths. 

On  August  18th,  in  the  early  morning  of  the  day 
following  their  first  move  across  the  frontier,  the  Bui- 
gars  attacked  the  Serbs  with  about  12,000  men.  The 
Serbs  could  only  gather  half  that  number  to  oppose 
them.  The  fight  took  place  along  a  line  from  Bo- 
resnica  through  Vostaran  to  the  Ceganska  Planina 
heights,  and  as  a  result  of  it  the  Danube  division  fell 
back  onto  Leskovec,  Vrtolom  and  Rosna,  all  of  them 
villages  south  of  the  Monastir  road. 

On  August  19th  there  was  a  hotly  contested  fight 
round  Banitza,  where  the  road  from  Monastir 
branches  off,  one  arm  to  Salonica,  the  other  south- 
wards to  Sorovitch.  At  6  P.M.  a  mass  attack  by  six 
battalions  of  Bulgarian  infantry  took  Hill  726  beside 
the  town,  and  the  Serbian  troops  holding  Hill  950 
further  to  the  south  were  forced  back  to  the  east  of 
Cerovo.  The  retreat  was  made  in  good  order,  and  the 
next  Serbian  line  of  defence  ran  from  the  northern 
end  of  Lake  Petrsko  along  the  Malkanidje  range  of 
hills  to  the  Ceganska  Planina. 

The  following  day,  August  20th,  was  the  most  criti- 
cal of  all.  The  fighting  was  being  carried  on  in  great 
heat  on  these  stony  hills  where  it  was  absolutely  im- 
possible to  dig,  and  where  the  only  shelter  to  be  ob- 
tained consisted  of  a  heaped  parapet  of  stones  which, 
if  a  shell  struck  it,  was  an  added  danger  rather  than 
a  protection.  The  Serbs  suffered  much  from  lack  of 
water.  Fortunately  the  Vardar  division  which  had 
been  away  back  in  reserve  was  beginning  to  arrive  by 


156        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

now,  but  for  all  that  the  Serbian  centre  was  forced 
off  the  Malkanidje  ridge  onto  the  hills  which  form 
the  very  bank  of  Lake  Ostrovo.  And  now  the  situa- 
tion became  really  serious.  Losing  ground  west  of 
Lake  Ostrovo  did  not  matter  much,  but  if  the  Serbs 
were  forced  to  abandon  this  last  ridge  before  the  lake 
there  would  have  been  no  way  of  retreat  for  them  ex- 
cept around  the  northern  end,  and  that  would  have  left 
it  open  for  the  enemy  to  advance  round  the  other  end 
and  cut  the  railway  to  Salonica  between  Agostos  and 
Vodena,  so  putting  themselves  astride  the  Serbian 
line  of  supply.  The  17th  Regiment  of  the  Drina 
division  was  sent  to  reinforce  the  Danube  division 
at  the  threatened  point,  while  the  rest  of  the  Drina  on 
the  Serbian  right  wing  went  further  to  the  north,  at- 
tacked and  took  the  lower  spurs  of  the  steep  mountain 
Kaimakchalan. 

The  success  of  the  Bulgarian  offensive  had  reached 
high  tide,  however.  Their  soldiers  were  boasting  ex- 
ultantly, as  we  heard  later  from  the  peasasts  of  the 
villages  they  occupied,  that  they  would  be  in  Salonica 
in  a  week.  The  rapidity  with  which  they  had  crum- 
pled up  our  left  wing  and  the  advantages  which  they 
enjoyed,  thanks  to  the  complicity  of  the  Greek  au- 
thorities and  the  native  inhabitants  of  Bulgarian  race 
of  the  region  they  were  fighting  in,  doubtless  encour- 
aged confidence.  Their  columns  were  guided  in  their 
advance  by  Greek  gendarmes  in  uniform,  and  their 
cavalry  patrols  even  succeeded  in  getting  round  to 
the  eastern  side  of  Lake  Ostrovo. 

But  the  capture  of  Pateli,  which  reduced  the 
Serbian  hold  on  the  western  bank  of  Lake  Ostrovo  to 
one-half  of  the  length  of  its  shore,  was  the  last  success 


BULGARIAN  SUMMER  OFFENSIVE  OF  1916      157 

that  the  Bulgarian  invasion  registered.  After  that 
they  seemed  exhausted,  as,  indeed,  they  might  well 
be,  at  the  end  of  a  whole  week  of  such  marching  and 
fighting  as  they  had  had.  And  meanwhile  the  Serbs 
were  growing  daily  stronger.  A  brigade  of  the  Timok 
division,  which  was  in  general  reserve  down  at 
Vodena,  arrived ;  the  irregulars,  the  best  fighters  in  the 
Serbian  Army,  suddenly  appeared  on  the  left  wing 
after  their  precarious  retreat  from  Fiorina;  the  first 
detachment  of  French  and  Russian  reinforcements 
were  getting  into  line  at  the  southern  end  of  Lake 
Ostrovo. 

On  August  22nd  five  separate  Bulgar  assaults  on 
the  ridge  west  of  Lake  Ostrovo  were  beaten  back  by 
counter-attacks.  The  losses  of  the  enemy  were  esti- 
mated at  five  times  those  of  the  Serbs. 

This  was  the  climax  of  the  battle  of  Ostrovo,  and 
its  further  development,  and  ensuing  conversion  into 
a  successful  Allied  advance,  is  told  in  the  chapter  on 
the  push  for  Monastir. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  PUSH  FOR  MONASTIR,  WITH 
BRITISH  CO-OPERATION 

WHEN  the  Allied  Forces  first  left  the  en- 
trenched camp  and  marched  up  towards  the 
Greek  frontier  to  make  a  new  line  there, 
French  troops  originally  moved  in  all  three  of  the 
principal  directions, — towards  Seres,  Kilkish  and  Mo- 
nastir.  The  result  was  that  the  British  on  the  Seres 
road  and  in  the  Kilkish  area  found  themselves  inter- 
spersed with  French.  General  Sarrail's  aim  in  this 
arrangement  was  that  he  wished  French  troops  to  be 
available  to  take  part  in  any  action  that  might  occur, 
and  it  could  not  be  certain  where  fighting  would  be- 
gin. But  General  Milne,  and  his  Chief  of  Staff 
(General  Milne  having  succeeded  to  the  command 
from  General  Sir  Bryan  Mahon  in  May),  saw,  in  this 
mingling  of  Allied  forces,  a  danger  of  confusion. 
The  different  supply-systems  would  conflict  on  the 
limited  routes  available,  and  the  lines  of  communica- 
tion of  the  French  and  British  Armies,  instead  of 
being  separate  and  distinct,  would  intersect  each 
other.  So,  with  a  view  to  securing  administrative 
efficiency,  General  Milne  asked  General  Sarrail  that 
the  English  might  be  accorded  an  independent  and 
homogeneous  sector  of  the  Allied  Balkan  line;  and 
General  Sarrail  agreed  to  this  at  once. 

158 


THE  PUSH  FOR  MONASTIR  159 

The  reshuffling  of  divisions  thus  rendered  neces- 
sary led  to  a  good  deal  of  marching  and  counter- 
marching that  seemed  futile  and  aimless  to  the  troops 
who  had  to  do  it,  but  which  simplified  considerably 
the  organisation  of  the  British  force. 

Before  the  change  was  made,  one  of  our  divisions 
had  been  since  April  18th  at  Kilkish,  with  a  French 
division  on  the  left,  and  two  French  divisions  carry- 
ing on  the  line  to  its  right.  Our  division's  front  was 
from  Hirsova  to  Dereselo,  a  trench-line  of  about 
10,000  yards.  We  had  no  exact  junction  with  the 
French,  but  they  said  that  in  case  of  a  Bulgar  advance 
down  the  plain  towards  Kilkish  they  could  stop  the 
enemy  with  their  75's  alone.  For  the  function  of 
our  division  was  that  of  the  stopper  in  the  neck  of 
what  was  known  by  the  French  as  the  "  trouee  de 
Kukus"  The  idea  was  that  on  either  side  the  French 
were  pushed  forward  and  held  hill  positions  that 
formed  salients,  while,  in  between,  was  the  inviting 
flat  plain  of  Kilkish,  down  which  the  enemy,  if  he 
felt  like  an  offensive,  might  come, — only  to  run  into 
our  division,  behind  its  wire,  at  the  head  of  the  gap, 
while  the  French  shot  at  him  from  either  side. 

But  the  Bulgar  was  not  to  be  tempted.  In  fact  his 
whole  campaign  has  been  a  defensive  one,  conducted, 
thanks  to  his  German  masters,  and  their  undivided 
authority,  with  unvarying  skill.  The  Bulgar  has  got 
nearly  all  he  really  expected  out  of  the  war,  and  he 
is  content  to  sit  tight  on  it.  He  is  a  stubborn  fellow, 
too,  in  defence  of  his  possessions. 

The  chasse-croise  of  our  divisions  with  the  French 
was  over  by  the  time  the  Bulgar  offensive  against  the 
Serbs,  which  culminated  in  the  battle  of  Ostrovo,  be- 


160        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

gan.  It  was  ending,  indeed,  when  the  Serbians  first 
began  to  move  out  of  Saloniea  at  the  end  of  June. 

The  holding  up  of  the  Bulgar  offensive  on  the 
Allied  left  wing  at  the  battle  of  O strove  (related  in 
Chapter  X)  was  followed  by  a  lull,  which  lasted  until 
the  middle  of  September.  The  Bulgars  did  not  retire ; 
they  and  the  Serbs  sat  and  looked  at  each  other  from 
behind  their  stone  parapets,  which  ran  about  the  hill- 
sides, where  it  was  too  rocky  to  dig  trenches,  in  a  way 
that  resembled  those  loose  stone  walls  which  divide  the 
fields  in  North  Wales.  I  say  "  looking  at  each  other  " 
advisedly,  for  the  Serbs,  at  any  rate,  were  extraordi- 
narily casual  in  the  way  they  exposed  themselves. 
"Just  stand  up  here,"  a  Serbian  officer  would  say, 
with  the  whole  of  his  head  above  the  parapet,  when 
you  visited  their  front-line  trenches.  "  You  see  that 
line  of  grey  stones  about  100  yards  down  the  hill? 
That's  their  front  line.  Now  just  watch  the  edge  of 
that,  and  you'll  see  their  heads  show  now  and  then. 
There!  See  that  one?"  One  always  professed  to 
detect  a  head  very  quickly,  this  entertainment  being 
trying  for  the  nerves,  but  I  have  often  noticed  that 
the  Germans  have  not  taught  the  Bulgarians  to  be 
anything  like  as  good  at  sniping  as  they  are  them- 
selves. 

From  July  20th,  however,  the  British  force 
began  to  settle  down  into  position,  from  the  Vardar 
in  the  centre  of  the  Allied  line  round  by  Lake 
Doiran  and  the  Struma  to  the  sea — a  front  of  ninety 
miles. 

The  French,  at  this  period  of  midsummer,  1916, 
had  no  actual  sector.  Some  of  their  troops  were 
getting  into  position  on  the  left  flank  of  the  Ser- 


THE  PUSH  FOR  MONASTIR  161 

bians  to  begin  the  push  backwards  towards  Monastir, 
and  they  had  two  divisions  in  Army  reserve,  avail- 
able for  reinforcing  any  part  of  the  front.  While 
we  were  still  in  process  of  relieving  the  French,  we 
co-operated  with  them  in  seizing  some  hill-positions 
in  the  corner  by  Lake  Doiran,  which  carried  the 
Allied  line  forward  to  the  foot  of  those  heights  of 
the  "  Pip  Ridge,"  Grand  Couronne  and  Petit 
Couronne,  which  have  since  barred  our  further 
progress. 

The  enemy  forces  between  the  Vardar  and  Lake 
Doiran  now  consisted  of  three  German  infantry  bat- 
talions on  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  with  two  others 
in  reserve  at  Bogdanci,  and  sixteen  Bulgarian  bat- 
talions on  the  rest  of  the  line  as  far  as  Doiran,  with 
several  others  in  reserve. 

On  August  15th  the  French  infantry,  supported 
both  by  English  and  French  guns,  occupied  Tortoise 
Hill  and  the  village  of  Doldzeli.  Next  day,  and  on 
the  night  following  that,  the  Bulgars  violently 
counter-attacked  Doldzeli,  and  the  village  changed 
hands  several  times,  finally  remaining  neutral  ground, 
with  the  opposing  forces  entrenched  on  either  edge  of 
it.  To  support  this  French  force  in  its  new  posi- 
tion, the  Oxfords  and  Bucks  Light  Infantry  rushed 
Horseshoe  Hill  in  the  night  of  the  17th  with  the 
bayonet.  The  French  originally  proposed  to  go  on 
and  attack  Petit  Couronne,  then  less  formidable  than 
it  is  now,  all  these  offensive  movements  being  in- 
tended but  as  the  prelude  to  a  strong  French  thrust 
up  the  Vardar  valley,  as  has  been  related  in  Chapter 
X.  But  just  then  came  the  sudden  Bulgar  offensive 
southwards  from  Monastir,  and  operations  of  any 


162         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

scope  in  the  Doiran-Vardar  sector  had  to  be  called 
off,  so  that  all  available  strength  might  be  used  to 
meet  the  danger  on  the  left  wing. 

On  September  llth,  a  couple  of  days  before  the 
date  fixed  for  the  start  of  the  combined  push  which 
the  French,  Serbians  and  Russians  were  preparing  to 
make  from  Lake  Ostrovo,  the  British,  to  co-operate 
with  this  movement,  began  a  holding  attack  on  the 
Macukovo  salient  close  to  the  left  bank  of  the  Var- 
dar.  This  salient  was  very  thoroughly  fortified,  and 
was,  moreover,  held  by  German  troops.  We  began 
with  three  days'  artillery  bombardment  by  all  cali- 
bres, using  heavy  howitzers  and  field-howitzers  to 
smash  the  enemy  trenches,  field-guns  to  cut  their  wire, 
and  60-pounders  and  long  6-inch  guns  to  silence  the 
enemy's  artillery.  On  the  night  of  the  13th,  the 
infantry  attack  was  made.  It  began  by  officers' 
patrols  creeping  up  to  find  the  best  gaps  in  the  wire. 
The  length  of  front  on  which  we  were  attacking  was 
only  a  mile,  for  our  object  was  not  to  pierce,  or  even 
permanently  to  occupy  part  of  the  enemy's  front,  but 
merely  to  seize,  and,  if  possible,  hold  for  a  little  time 
the  position  called  "  Machine-gun  Hill,"  with  a  view 
to  keeping  the  Bulgars  interested  in  this  part  of  their 
front,  and  thus  preventing  them  from  sending  rein- 
forcements round  to  oppose  the  impending  Franco- 
Serbian  attack  in  the  west.  It  was  the  first  time 
our  troops  in  the  Balkans  had  made  an  attack  of  this 
size  upon  entrenched  positions  of  the  enemy,  but  in 
one  hour  and  twenty-five  minutes  from  the  time  that 
the  order  of  attack  was  given  at  the  place  of  assembly, 
the  whole  of  the  trenches  indicated  were  in  our  pos- 
session. Fifty  prisoners  with  nine  machine-guns  were 


GENERAL  SARRAIL,  G.C.M.G.,  COM- 
MANDER-IN-CHIEF OF  THE  ALLIED 
FORCES  IN  THE  BALKANS. 


THE  PUSH  FOR  MONASTIR  163 

taken,  and  the  Lancashire  Fusiliers  and  Liverpool 
Regiment,  supported  by  the  East  Lancashire  and  R. 
W.  Fusiliers  who  had  captured  the  position,  began  at 
once  to  reconstruct  its  defences.  Not  without  reason, 
for  the  Bulgar  infantry  counter-attack,  which  they 
beat  off  during  the  night,  was  only  a  prelude  to  a 
most  violent  bombardment  next  day  by  every  Bul- 
garian battery  within  range.  The  next  afternoon,  in 
consequence,  to  avoid  further  losses,  and  as  the  limited 
object  of  the  attack  had  been  fully  carried  out,  the 
brigade  was  withdrawn. 

Meanwhile,  the  Franco-Serbian  counter-offensive 
had  started,  and  met  with  very  satisfactory  success. 
The  Serbs  had  in  line  the  whole  of  their  Third  and, 
First  Armies  under  Generals  Vassitch  and  Voivode 
Misitch  respectively.  Their  Second  Army  remained 
where  it  had  been  since  before  the  Ostrovo  battle, 
further  round  on  the  right,  facing  the  Bulgars,  among 
the  steep  scrub-covered  mountains  of  the  Moglena. 
And  in  co-operation  with  the  Serbs,  at  the  northern 
end  of  Lake  Ostrovo,  was  practically  the  whole 
French  force  in  the  Balkans,  with  a  contingent  of 
Russians.  The  Serbs  were  also  supported  by  French 
heavy  artillery,  having  no  guns  of  their  own  bigger 
than  120  mm. 

I  returned  immediately  after  witnessing  the  attack 
on  the  Macukovo  salient  to  the  Serbian  front.  By 
this  time,  September  18th,  the  Franco- Serbian  Army 
had  pushed  forward  to  within  a  few  miles  of  Fiorina 
on  the  left  wing,  their  new  line  running  in  a  north- 
easterly direction  from  there  back  towards  Kaimak- 
chalan.  The  Serbs  took  back  thirteen  miles  of  lost 
ground  in  three  days.  The  Gornichevo  pass  and  the 


164 

village  of  Banitza,  on  the  main  road  to  Monastir,  had 
been  regained,  and  as  you  drove  along  it,  you  passed 
ample  evidence  that  the  Bulgarian  retreat  had  been 
considerably  hurried.  Abandoned  guns,  to  the  num- 
ber of  nine,  and  thirty  limbers,  lay  by  the  side  of  the 
road.  The  victorious  Serbs  had  not  yet  had  time  to 
drag  them  away.  All  the  rubbish  that  a  hastily 
retreating  army  leaves  behind  was  scattered  right 
and  left.  Bullet-pierced  caps  and  helmets,  greatcoats, 
broken  rifles,  ammunition-pouches,  marked  the  trail 
of  the  retreating  enemy,  and  from  the  top  of  the  hill 
at  Banitza,  where  the  road  drops  steeply  down  to  the 
plain,  you  could  see  the  Serbian  infantry  spread  out 
on  the  green  turf,  each  in  his  little  individual  shelter- 
trench,  while  the  enemy  shrapnel  burst  above  and 
among  them ;  and  beyond,  right  away  in  the  distance, 
loomed  faintly  the  white  minarets  and  walls  of  Mo- 
nastir, their  goal  on  the  threshold  of  Serbia,  gleaming 
faintly  through  the  haze,  like  the  towers  of  an  unreal 
fairy-city.  There  was  to  be  much  fighting  during  the 
next  two  months  in  this  green  plain  of  Monastir, 
across  which  the  enemy  had  already  constructed  two 
strong  lines  of  defensive  works  before  he  started  on 
his  advance  to  Ostrovo. 

And  this  is  the  moment  to  say  how  effective  a  con- 
tribution towards  the  success  of  the  Serbian  advance 
from  Ostrovo  was  made  by  the  English  M.T.  compan- 
ies, which  had  been  lent  to  the  Serbian  Army,  the 
Serbs  having  no  M.T.  organisation  of  their  own.  If  I 
remember  rightly,  there  were  at  this  time  three  Ford 
companies  of  100  lorries  each,  and  one  three-ton  lorry 
company  attached  to  the  Serbians.  Serbian  generals 
have  frequently  avowed  in  their  Army  orders  how 


THE  PUSH  FOR  MONASTIR  165 

impossible  it  would  have  been  for  them  to  press  so 
closely  as  they  did  upon  the  heels  of  the  Bulgars  but 
for  the  self -regardless  assistance  of  the  officers  and 
men  of  these  M.T.  companies.  The  drivers  threw 
themselves  into  the  work  of  punching  those  little  Ford 
vans  up  appalling  hills  like  the  Gornichevo  pass  in  a 
truly  sporting  spirit.  It  was  up  to  them  to  see  that 
the  Serbians  fighting  on  ahead  were  not  let  down  for 
lack  of  ammunition,  and  that  as  many  of  their 
wounded  as  possible  should  be  brought  back  down  to 
railhead  at  Ostrovo.  They  worked  for  forty-eight 
hours  on  end  without  stopping,  over  roads  crowded 
with  troops  and  guns,  cheerfully  giving  up  food  and 
sleep  during  the  push.  Some  of  the  gradients  up 
which  they  took  their  loads  were  so  steep  that  the 
petrol  would  not  flow  into  the  carburetter,  and  the 
only  way  the  cars  could  get  up  these  parts  was  by  a 
sort  of  waltzing  movement,  the  weary  but  determined 
driver  twisting  his  van  sideways  across  the  road  every 
few  yards  to  get  another  gasp  of  petrol,  and  then 
making  on  up  the  slope  a  little  further  until  his  engine 
was  on  the  point  of  stopping,  before  repeating  the 
manoeuvre.  Perhaps  the  worst  of  the  many  bad  runs 
which  these  Ford  companies  undertook,  was  the  one 
from  the  side  of  Lake  Ostrovo  up  to  the  village  of 
Batachin  on  the  slopes  of  Mt.  Kaimakchalan.  I 
made  one  journey  up  it,  and  though  it  was  once  my 
fortune  to  chase  an  aeroplane  across  the  Swiss  Alps  in 
a  100  h.p.  racing-car,  climbing  Kaimakchalan  in  a 
"  flying  bedstead  "  of  a  Ford  was  a  sensation  yet  more 
vivid.  As  the  car  zigzagged  up  the  hairpin  ladder 
of  the  yellow  road,  one  was  haunted  by  an  incon- 
gruous memory  of  how 


166        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

"  The  blessed  Damozel  lean'd  out 
From  the  gold  bar  of  Heaven." 

For,  indeed,  one  might  have  been  on  some  celestial 
balcony.  Ostrovo  Lake,  with  its  ragged  fringe  of 
trees,  and  the  sandy  flats  upon  its  shore,  lay  far  below, 
almost  sheer  beneath  one.  And  looking  down  upon 
the  roofs  of  the  next  convoy  of  cars  following,  they 
seemed  more  like  an  orderly  string  of  ants  than  of 
vehicles  as  big  as  one's  own. 

There  is  a  belt  of  splendid  beech  forest  halfway 
up  Kaimakchalan,  but  beyond  that  the  bare  mountain- 
side stretches  nakedly  on  to  its  cap  of  almost  peren- 
nial snow.  Its  surface  is  like  Dartmoor  drawn  up  at 
an  angle  to  the  sky,  and  right  on  the  top,  where  the 
north  slope  drops  sheer  away  to  the  Cerna  valley, 
stand  the  white  frontier-stones  that  mark  the  boundary 
of  Serbia.  From  here  there  is  a  magnificent  outlook 
across  a  great  confused  stretch  of  rocky  hills  which 
from  this  height  appear  no  more  important  than  the 
wrinkles  on  a  plaster  contour-map. 

It  was  on  this  vantage-ground  above  the  clouds, 
with  the  country  they  were  fighting  to  win  back  laid 
out  in  full  prospect  before  their  eyes,  that  the  Serbs 
fought  their  fiercest  battles  with  the  Bulgars.  The 
Bulgars  had  such  casualties  that  one  battalion  of 
their  46th  Regiment  mutinied.  Little  entrenching 
was  possible  on  the  stonebound  mountain-side.  In 
clefts  and  gullies,  behind  outcrops  of  rock,  or  under 
shelter  of  individual  heaps  of  stones  collected  under 
cover  of  the  dark  the  soldiers  of  these  two  Balkan 
armies,  not  unakin  in  race,  with  language  closely  re- 
lated, and  histories  that  are  a  parallel  story,  faced  and 


THE  PUSH  FOR  MONASTIR  167 

fought  each  other  with  savage  and  bitter  hatred, 
under  the  fiercest  weather  conditions  of  cold  and  ex- 
posure. The  wind  there  was  sometimes  so  strong  that 
the  Serbs  said  they  "  almost  feared  that  the  trench- 
mortar  projectiles  would  be  blown  back  onto  them." 
There  could  be  little  artillery  at  that  altitude  to 
keep  the  battle-lines  apart.  Mortar,  bomb  and  bayonet 
were  the  weapons  that  worked  the  slaughter  on  Kai- 
makchalan,  and  so  fiercely  were  they  used  that  Serbs 
would  reach  the  ambulances  with  broken-off  pieces  of 
knives  and  bayonets  in  their  wounds.  You  came  upon 
little  piles  of  dead  in  every  gully ;  behind  each  clump 
of  rocks  you  found  them,  not  half -buried  in  mud  or 
partly  covered  by  the  ruins  of  a  blown-in  trench  or 
shattered  dugout,  but  lying  like  men  asleep  on  the 
clean  hard  stones.  The  fish-tail  of  an  aerial  torpedo, 
the  effect  of  whose  explosion  had  been  magnified  by 
flying  clouds  of  stony  shrapnel,  usually  furnished 
evidence  of  the  nature  of  their  death.  Not  for  days 
only,  but  for  weeks  after,  dead  Bulgars  lay  there,  pre- 
served in  the  semblance  of  life  by  the  cold  mountain 
air,  looking  with  calm,  unseeing  eyes  across  the  battle- 
ground that  had  once  been  the  scene  of  savage  and 
concentrated  passion  and  activity,  and  then  lapsed 
back  again  into  its  native  loneliness,  where  the  eagle 
is  the  only  thing  that  moves.  Some  still  held  in  their 
stiff  fingers  the  bandage  they  had  been  putting  to  a 
wound  when  death  took  them ;  here  was  a  man  with  a 
half -eaten  bread-crust  in  his  hand.  On  others  you 
could  see  no  sign  of  hurt.  They  must  have  been  killed 
by  the  shock  alone  of  the  explosion  of  that  aerial 
torpedo  whose  black  fragments  lie  among  them, — 
killed,  too,  at  night  probably  as  they  waited  for  the 


168        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

dawn  to  start  fighting  once  more.  In  other  places 
you  would  find  bodies  of  Serbs  and  Bulgars  mixed  to- 
gether where  they  had  met  with  the  bayonet.  Yet 
on  none  of  the  dead  faces  that  you  looked  into  did  you 
see  the  trace  of  an  expression  of  anger  or  fear.  They 
slept  dispassionately,  calmly,  as  if  finding  in  death 
the  rest  and  release  from  suffering  that  war  had  so 
sternly  denied  them. 

Meanwhile,  in  the  broad  corridor  of  flat  green  turf 
that  leads  northward  from  Fiorina  to  Monastir,  the 
Serbs  and  French  fought  unremittingly  to  drive  the 
Bulgars  further.  Delay  was  caused  to  our  advance 
by  the  fact  that  the  Bulgars  in  their  retreat  blew  up 
the  railway  viaduct  across  the  gorge  at  Eksisu;  and 
the  need  of  pausing  while  the  French  wheeled  round 
into  line  at  Fiorina  to  conform  with  the  right-angled 
change  of  direction  necessary  for  the  advance  on  Mo- 
nastir allowed  the  enemy  time  to  settle  into  his  Kenali 
trenches,  which  held  us  up  for  six  weeks  more.  A  pre- 
liminary Bulgar  stand  was  made  on  a  line  that  ran 
through  Petorak,  Vrbeni  and  Krusograd. 

It  was  open  fighting  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word. 
From  the  crest  of  one  of  the  rolling  ridges  of  grass 
you  could  watch  the  movement  of  every  individual 
infantry  soldier  from  the  time  he  got  up  at  the  foot 
of  your  hill,  through  all  his  two-mile  advance  in 
skirmishing  order  across  the  bare  plain,  until  he 
reached  the  enemy  wire,  which  was  clear  to  see  with 
glasses  in  front  of  the  black  copses  of  trees  that  sur- 
round the  villages  of  Petorak  and  Vrbeni. 

Once  during  that  fighting,  on  September  19th,  I 
saw  a  Bulgarian  attempt  at  a  cavalry  charge.  It  was 
only  an  affair  of  two  squadrons,  and  it  was  swept  away 


THE  PUSH  FOR  MONASTIR  169 

by  machine-guns,  the  body  of  the  young  captain  who 
led  it  being  found  afterwards  on  the  ground.  But 
cavalry  charges  are  rare  now,  and  an  open  flat  coun- 
try like  this  plain  of  Monastir,  where  you  could  gallop 
till  your  horse  dropped  dead  without  meeting  any 
obstacle  more  formidable  than  a  drainage-ditch,  was 
a  rare  setting  for  one.  The  Serbian  infantry  were 
scattered  in  the  open,  not  in  a  continuous  trench-line, 
but  in  those  little  trous  individuels,  like  the  beginnings 
of  a  grave,  which  each  man  digs  for  himself.  The 
Bulgar  guns  were  shelling  them  with  shrapnel  in  a 
half-hearted  way.  It  seemed  a  slack  sort  of  battle- 
day.  Then  one  noticed  an  indistinct  little  black  blob 
moving  about  on  the  edge  of  Vrbeni  wood  four  miles 
away.  The  glasses  revealed  it  as  horsemen,  formed  in 
two  separate  bodies.  Could  it  be  that  they  were  going 
to  charge?  Evidently,  for  they  began  to  move 
towards  us,  keeping  their  close  formation  for  a  little, 
then  opening  out  onto  a  wider  front.  They  trotted  on 
a  little  distance  in  this  way,  with  shells  beginning  to 
drop  in  their  direction  from  batteries  which  had  no- 
ticed the  unusual  phenomenon.  The  trot  broke  into  a 
canter  and  then  the  two  squadrons  suddenly  strung 
out  into  another  formation,  a  long  diagonal  line,  and 
lengthened  into  a  gallop.  It  was  a  gallant  sight,  and 
when  the  Serbian  machine-guns  began  a  rattling  fire 
that  eventually  stopped  the  charge,  one's  sympathy 
seemed  drawn  somehow  to  the  horsemen.  For  one 
thing  a  mounted  man  coming  down  is  much  more 
dramatic  a  sight  than  a  foot-soldier  falling.  Horse 
and  man,  if  it  is  the  horse  that  is  hit,  go  sprawling 
and  rolling  over,  or  if  the  man  is  shot  and  falls  from 
the  saddle,  the  horse  either  comes  galloping  on  rider- 


170        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

less  or  else  rushes  wildly  away  on  his  own;  whereas, 
when  you  watch  an  infantry  advance,  you  cannot  tell 
which  men  are  dropping  because  they  are  hit  and 
which  are  only  taking  cover  or  lying  down  to  get 
breath.  Those  Bulgar  horsemen  never  got  up  to 
the  Serbian  infantry.  As  soon  as  they  were  within  a 
thousand  yards,  the  leading  files  of  the  diagonal  lines 
withered  away  before  a  hail  of  bullets  from  rifles  and 
machine-guns ;  they  could  never  have  seen  the  troops 
they  had  been  sent  to  attack,  and  indeed  the  whole 
thing  seemed  a  very  futile  and  unpractical  sort  of 
enterprise  to  have  undertaken  at  all.  What  was  left 
of  the  two  squadrons  frayed  out  into  a  line  that  be- 
came more  and  more  ragged  till  it  just  broke  off,  and 
the  survivors,  wheeling  round,  galloped  back  for 
Vrbeni  wood  again. 

The  right  use  for  cavalry  in  modern  war  was  shown 
a  little  later  when  the  Serbs  forced  the  passage  of  the 
Cerna  river.  That  was  part  of  this  same  battle  for 
Monastir,  but  occurred  when  we  had  got  a  little  fur- 
ther forward  and  the  Serbs  were  pushing  on  to  the 
right  of  the  town  so  as  to  threaten  the  enemy  line  of 
communications  and  force  him  to  abandon  the  place. 

The  continuous  trench-line  which  the  Bulgars  had 
built  across  the  plain  of  Monastir  ran  in  front  of 
Kenali,  and  then  mounted  a  conspicuous  sandstone 
bluff  forming  the  left  bank  of  the  Sakulevo  river,  the 
line  of  which  it  followed  till  it  reached  the  Cerna  at 
Brod.  East  of  Brod  the  Cerna,  hitherto  open  on  one 
bank  to  the  flat  plain  of  Monastir,  enters  a  valley  be- 
tween rocky  mountains  as  it  begins  to  turn  north 
again.  On  the  corner  which  the  Starkovgrob  heights 
make  on  the  southern  bank  of  the  river,  like  a  high 


THE  PUSH  FOR  MONASTIR  171 

bastion  looking  out  over  the  Monastir  plain  to  the 
west,  and  across  into  the  welter  of  stony  hills  beyond 
the  Cerna  to  the  north,  the  commander  of  the  Serbian 
Morava  division  had  fixed  his  battle  observation-post. 
There  you  could  stand  among  pinnacles  of  rock  and 
watch  every  move  of  the  fight  across  the  valley. 
Alongside  you,  concealed  by  the  crags,  French  field- 
guns  pounded  the  stony  heights  that  rose  like  an  un- 
broken wall  beyond  the  river,  where,  dotted  about 
among  the  huge  boulders,  you  could  see  the  Serbian 
infantry  clambering  upwards  to  the  assault.  To  make 
their  horizon-blue  coats  more  distinguishable  against 
the  slate-coloured  rock,  so  that  the  French  gunners 
and  their  own  should  not  drop  shells  among  them, 
every  man  had  a  square  of  white  calico  fastened  to 
his  back,  and  the  leader  of  each  section  carried  a  little 
flag,  so  that  the  steep  slopes  opposite  were  dotted 
with  moving  points  of  white. 

Brod,  the  village  on  the  river-bank,  was  burning, 
and  had  been  abandoned  by  the  enemy.  Veliselo,  the 
squalid  little  hamlet  above  it,  hiding  in  a  pocket  of  the 
mountains,  was  the  Serbians'  next  objective.  And 
suddenly,  as  we  watched  the  Serb  infantry  climb  up- 
ward among  the  rocks  with  their  screen  of  friendly 
shells  creeping  on  ahead  of  them,  a  number  of  little 
black  figures  sprang  into  sight  on  the  hillside  above 
and  went  racing  off  among  the  rocks  towards  Veli- 
selo. It  was  the  Bulgars  in  retreat.  And  soon 
Veliselo  itself,  whose  thatched  mud  huts  were  plainly 
to  be  seen,  began  to  show  signs  of  panic-stricken 
activity.  A  string  of  Bulgarian  carts  started  pour- 
ing out  of  the  further  end.  With  your  glasses  you 
could  see  stragglers  running  into  the  villages,  dodging 


172         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

about  among  the  houses  and  then  out  along  the  track 
beyond,  on  the  trail  of  the  retreating  column.  The 
Bulgars  were  in  full  flight  for  their  next  prepared 
position  among  the  mountains  behind.  To  cut  off 
as  many  as  possible  before  they  got  to  the  protection 
of  the  new  line  the  commander  of  the  Morava  division 
ordered  up  the  Serbian  cavalry.  They  appeared 
from  behind  us  down  in  the  plain  below  on  our  left, — 
a  long  column  trotting  and  cantering  alternately  in  a 
dry  stream-bed.  While  they  followed  that  the  Bui- 
gar  and  German  gunners  on  the  rocky  slopes  beyond 
the  Cerna  could  not  see  them,  but  soon  they  had  to 
leave  it  and  strike  for  the  river-bank  across  the  open. 
It  was  a  splendid  spectacle, — a  half-mile  column  of 
horsemen  cantering  over  the  grass.  Shells  began  to 
fall  about  them,  now  on  this  side,  now  on  that.  One 
or  two  men  fell,  hit  by  flying  fragments,  but  the  rest 
swept  on  and  crossed  the  Cerna  with  a  mighty  splash- 
ing. Brod,  the  village  on  the  other  side,  was  already 
on  fire,  and  a  bombardment  of  it  was  begun  by  the 
enemy  to  hinder  the  Serbian  cavalry  from  passing,  but 
they  formed  up  under  the  cover  of  the  river-bank  and 
then  squadrons  began  to  set  off  on  individual 
adventures  after  the  flying  Bulgars.  One  of  them 
captured  a  whole  enemy  battery,  limbers,  gun-teams 
and  all. 

While  the  Serbians  were  thus  fighting  with  gradual 
success  upon  the  right  of  the  Monastir  sector,  the 
French  made  one  or  two  frontal  attacks  upon  the 
Kenali  trenches  in  the  flat  plain,  and  the  Russians  had 
some  rough  fighting  among  the  mountains  that 
stretch  westwards  to  Lake  Prespa.  These  attacks,  of 
which  the  chief  was  that  of  October  14th,  were  not 


THE  PUSH  FOR  MONASTIR  173 

successful,  for  the  Kenali  lines  were  made  with  all  the 
skill  and  thoroughness  of  positions  on  the  Western 
front,  while  we  had  nothing  like  the  same  weight  or 
quantity  of  artillery  at  our  disposal  to  smash  them. 
So  that  when  the  Serbs  carried  Kaimakchalan  and 
began  to  get  on  in  the  loop  of  the  Cerna  river  on  one 
flank  of  the  Kenali  lines,  in  such  a  way  that  if  they 
won  much  more  ground  they  would  succeed  in  turn- 
ing the  defences  of  Monastir,  General  Sarrail  with- 
drew troops,  both  French  and  Russian,  from  his  left 
wing  to  strengthen  his  right,  and  put  these  French 
reinforcements  under  the  orders  of  Marshal  Misitch, 
commanding  the  Serbian  First  Army,  who  proved 
worthy  of  his  confidence.  The  tactics  which  led  finally 
to  the  recapture  of  Monastir  were,  in  fact,  manoeu- 
vring and  pressure  along  the  whole  of  this  sector, 
combined  with  a  definite  attempt  to  pierce  the  enemy 
front  at  one  point,  this  effort  being  made  by  the 
Serbs,  to  whose  persistence  under  most  severe  fight- 
ing conditions  the  credit  for  this  winning  back  of  their 
own  city  belongs. 

While  our  Allies  on  the  left  were  engaged  in  this 
heavy  fighting,  the  British  Army  on  the  Struma 
undertook  an  attack  upon  some  fortified  villages  on 
the  other  side  of  the  river.  The  main  object  of  this 
was  to  hold  the  Bulgars  in  front  of  us  and  keep  them 
from  sending  troops  round  to  the  Monastir  sector  to 
strengthen  the  resistance  to  our  Allies  there. 

When  you  have  journeyed  about  forty  miles  up 
and  down  the  hills  of  the  winding  Seres  road  you 
come  to  the  crest  of  the  last  ridge  and  find  yourself 
looking  across  the  broad  green  Struma  valley,  on  the 
far  side  of  which,  fifteen  miles  away,  the  white  houses 


174        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

of  Seres  shine  out  from  among  black  trees  at  the 
foot  of  the  opposing  hills. 

Further  to  the  left,  also  under  the  slope  of  the 
ridge  opposite,  is  Demir  Hissar,  and  there,  where 
the  river  comes  down  from  the  north  into  the  plain, 
is  the  only  break  in  the  heights  that  close  the  view 
before  you;  that  break  is  the  pass  of  Rupel,  where 
stands  the  now-famous  fort.  To  the  west  again  of  this 
rises  the  black  wall  of  the  Belashitza  mountains, 
capped  with  snow  far  on  into  the  spring. 

The  plain  of  the  Struma  at  your  feet  looks  from 
this  height  flat  as  a  billiard-table,  but  is  by  no  means 
so  level,  for  its  surface  is  scored  with  little  nullahs, 
dried-up  stream-beds,  and  sunken  roads  that  make  it 
quite  difficult  to  find  your  way  about  when  you  get 
down  there.  You  can  often  see  only  a  few  yards  on 
either  side  of  you ;  every  track  looks  alike ;  every  tree 
is  the  twin  model  of  every  other.  The  villages  scat- 
tered about  the  plain  are  recognisable  enough  from 
up  here,  but  down  there  if  you  have  lost  your  bearings 
a  little  and  approach  one  of  them  at  close  quarters, 
there  is  nothing  in  its  single-storied,  tumble-down, 
dingy-white  plaster  cottages  to  distinguish  it  from 
half-a-dozen  others,  and  moreover  they  are  all  so 
straggling  that  troops  told  off  to  occupy  a  village 
were  often  hard  put  to  it  to  tell  where  it  ended  and 
the  next  one  began. 

The  Struma  river,  here  gleaming  like  a  silver  band 
across  the  grass,  there  hidden  by  black  clumps  of 
trees,  is  the  explanation  both  of  why  this  is  one  of 
the  most  fertile  stretches  of  ground,  yard  for  yard, 
in  Europe,  and  why  it  is  also  one  of  the  most  danger- 
ous malarial  belts  in  the  world.  The  best  cigarettes 


THE  PUSH  FOR  MONASTIR  175 

you  can  buy  in  Piccadilly  are  probably  made  of  to- 
bacco grown  on  the  fields  through  which  we  have  since 
cut  our  trenches.  That  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  they 
are  now  so  dear.  Before  the  Bulgars  moved  down 
and  we  moved  up  to  the  Struma  the  Seres  road  would 
be  dotted  with  strings  of  donkeys  laden  with  bales 
of  pale  gold  tobacco-leaf,  coming  down  to  Salonica 
for  shipment.  A  fair  but  unhealthy  region,  which  I 
will  describe  more  fully  later  on. 

What  we  were  setting  out  to  do  beyond  the  Struma 
was  to  expand  the  small  existing  bridgehead  beyond 
Orliak  bridge  into  a  big  crescent  of  new  trenches, 
including  within  its  limits  several  villages  which  we 
now  prepared  to  capture.  The  two  which  were  gained 
on  September  30th  are  called  Karadjakeui-bala  and 
Karad  j  akeui-zir. 

During  the  previous  night  two  brigades  of  one 
division  and  the  29th  Brigade  of  the  10th  Division 
crossed  the  Struma  below  Orliak  bridge  and  by  8  A.M. 
the  Gloucesters  and  Cameron  Highlanders  had  taken 
Bala,  meeting  with  little  opposition. 

Zir,  the  next  objective,  was  only  a  mile  away  across 
the  open  and  at  10.20  A.M.  the  Argylls  and  the  Royal 
Scots  were  about  to  push  on  against  it,  when  from  the 
village  of  Yenikeuy,  next  to  the  west,  the  head  of  a 
Bulgar  counter-attack  appeared.  It  was  made  by 
one  regiment,  but  it  got  a  very  little  way.  The  heavy 
guns  of  another  division  whose  artillery  was  co-operat- 
ing, smashed  it  up  at  once;  the  Bulgars  could  be  seen 
falling  fast  and  the  rest  soon  turned  back  and  were 
lost  to  sight. 

The  unusual  feature  of  this  fighting  on  the  Struma 
was  the  remarkably  good  artillery  observation  you 


176        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

could  get.  From  the  artillery  command  post  on  one 
of  the  foothills  at  the  edge  of  the  plain  one  saw  every- 
thing. Our  men  and  the  enemy  were  equally  visible, 
and  the  work  of  the  British  artillery  was  even  better 
than  usual  in  consequence. 

The  attack  on  Zir  was  delayed  for  a  time  by  an 
enemy  trench  which  enfiladed  our  troops  as  they  ad- 
vanced, and  it  was  decided  to  renew  the  attempt  at 
four,  beginning  with  an  intense  bombardment  of  the 
village. 

Never  did  a  battle  look  more  like  a  chess-game 
than  from  this  hill.  The  Corps  Commander  and  his 
staff  were  standing  there  among  the  scrub.  A  deal 
table  behind  them  was  covered  with  maps. 

On  another  hillock  the  artillery  general  had  his 
command  post.  New  white  telegraph  poles  brought 
a  criss-cross  of  wires  to  it;  a  battery  of  telescopes  of 
all  calibres  were  directed  to  different  points  of  the 
valley  below.  At  the  telephone  a  gunner  staff -officer 
was  ringing  up  different  batteries  all  the  time.  "  Is 
that  the  Adjutant?  What  reports  have  you  about 
ammuntion?  What's  the  bearing  of  that  gun? — 5730 
magnetic,  did  you  say?  What's  that?  Enemy  con- 
voy proceeding  along  road  to  Hristian  Camilla? 
Right.  Tell  one-four-three  to  get  onto  it." 

A  moment  later  he  would  be  talking  to  the  6-inch 
howitzers,  squat  guns  with  caterpillar-wheels,  lurk- 
ing in  depressions  of  the  ground  at  the  foot  of  the 
hill,  and  looking,  under  their  roof  of  anti-aerial-obser- 
vation fish-netting,  like  some  strange  and  gigantic 
fowl  in  a  pen.  "Are  you  there?  You  are  to  stop 
firing  now  until  four  o'clock.  At  four  you  are  to 
start  shelling  Zir  one  round  a  minute.  Then  at  4.10 


THE  PUSH  FOR  MONASTIR  177 

whack  in  all  you  can  everywhere  round  about  and  in- 
side the  village.  Now  what  time  have  you  got?  The 
infantry  are  going  to  try  to  rush  the  village  at  4.15. 
Not  a  round  is  to  be  fired  after  that  time.  It's  now 
3.48.  Pass  that  round  to  the  batteries."  And  a  few 
minutes  later,  "  I  want  to  synchronise  your  watch 
again.  It's  3.56, — three-five,  four-oh,  four-five,  five- 
oh,  five-five,  3.57." 

Then  an  officer  at  another  telephone  would  inter- 
rupt, "  Oh — Esses-Beer  reports  enemy  troops  ad- 
vancing from  Yenikeui  north-east,  sir." 

All  glasses  are  converged  onto  Yenikeui.  "  I  can 
see  a  few,"  says  some  one.  "  Yes,  they're  advancing 
from  the  N.E.  There  are  some  in  the  middle  of  the 
village,  too.  Lot  of  single  men  behind.  Now,  there's 
a  man  on  a  horse  behind.  By  Jove,  it  isn't  a  man  on 
a  horse.  It's  a  gun.  Well,  they're  not  moving.  I 
wonder  if  they're  dummies.  They  put  up  very  clever 
dummies  sometimes." 

But  the  pulverising  of  Zir  was  the  most  pressing 
business  on  hand.  The  chatty  arrangements  one  had 
heard  made  over  the  telephone  had  conjured  up  hell 
for  Zir  and  ordered  it  punctually  to  the  minute. 
Every  calibre  of  gun  we  had,  big  middling  and 
small,  concentrated  on  that  400-yard  front  of  village 
and  with  each  single  second  half-a-dozen  fountains 
of  parti-coloured  dust  and  smoke  sprang  up  along  it 
simultaneously  into  the  air.  Grey  smoke,  black 
smoke,  yellow,  brown  and  white,  elbowed  and  over- 
lapped each  other.  Fierce  red  flames  flashed  among 
them,  dulled  by  the  inferno  of  smoke.  Fleecy  shrap- 
nel bursts  grouped  themselves  in  bunches  overhead. 
By  this  time  not  a  house  in  the  village  could  be  seen. 


178        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

There  was  not  a  gap  between  the  shell-bursts.  Zir 
was  literally  hidden  behind  a  dense  curtain.  Until 
at  last  the  very  smoke  itself  was  hidden  by  more 
smoke,  the  outlines  of  individual  shell-bursts  being 
engulfed  and  swallowed  up  by  a  formless  fog  of  drift- 
ing yellow  fumes.  Then,  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
bombardment  had  begun,  it  stopped,  as  suddenly  as 
you  turn  off  water  at  a  tap.  Three  hundred  and  thirty 
6-inch  shells  had  fallen  into  the  village  in  the  last 
five  minutes.  Then  Zir  slowly  emerged  again,  but 
smashed  and  battered  into  a  shape  that  its  oldest  in- 
habitant would  not  have  recognized,  with  sluggish 
drifts  and  wisps  of  lazy  smoke  crawling  through  its 
narrow  streets. 

It  was  next  the  turn  of  the  twin  village  of  Bala, 
which  we  had  newly  won,  to  endure  temporary  smoke- 
eclipse,  for  the  Bulgars,  expecting  our  attack,  put 
up  a  violent  curtain  of  fire.  The  two  villages  were 
linked  by  a  mile-long  bar  of  brown  smoke  and  dust. 
Through  this  at  five  o'clock  the  Royal  Scots  and 
the  Argyll  and  Sutherlands  pushed  on,  as  fast  as  man 
can  move,  carrying  two  days'  rations,  pack,  rifle,  220 
rounds  of  ammunition,  and  pick  or  shovel.  They 
were  still  enfiladed  by  machine-guns,  but  found  the 
Bulgars  in  poor  trenches  on  the  outskirts  of  Zir.  The 
enemy  stood  their  ground  till  our  men  were  close  upon 
them,  then  threw  down  their  arms,  and  Zir  was  ours. 
Just  after  dark,  however,  a  Bulgar  counter-attack 
was  launched,  and  the  black  plain  sprang  into  a  vivid 
illumination  of  coloured  glares  and  "  Very  "  lights. 
Another  attack  broke  loose  at  1.15  A.M.  It  was  a 
pitch-black  night  with  a  sickle  moon  just  peeping  over 
the  hills.  For  five  minutes  nothing  but  small  arms 


THE  PUSH  FOR  MONASTIR  179 

were  at  work.  Then  one  solitary  green  ball  of  fire  shot 
up  and  drooped  slowly  down  again.  Immediately  the 
waiting  Bulgar  guns  opened  and  the  whole  darkness 
round  Zir  was  torn  by  flashes  of  bursting  shells.  The 
flare  of  the  discharges  flickered  across  the  sky  like 
summer  lightning.  From  the  trenches  where  our  men 
were  firing  as  fast  as  they  could  work  the  bolt,  bril- 
liant white  "  Very  "  lights  followed  one  another  into 
the  air  like  a  Roman  candle  display  and  threw  their 
circles  of  pale  cold  radiance  upon  the  bare  grass 
dotted  with  dark  Bulgar  forms.  On  their  side,  too, 
red  and  green  flare-signals  towered  up  unceasingly 
for  the  guidance  of  their  energetic  guns.  Then  our 
people  brought  our  own  artillery  to  work,  though  in 
less  measure,  and  5-inch  shells,  which  hurtle  across 
the  sky  with  the  noise  of  a  tube  train  approaching  a 
station,  began  at  deliberate  intervals  to  burst  upon 
the  rear  of  the  Bulgarian  attack.  It  was  a  fierce  on- 
slaught, but  it  failed,  and  when  dawn  came,  cold 
and  grey,  Zir  and  Bala  awakened  side  by  side  look- 
ing as  sleepy  as  they  had  always  done,  with  nothing 
at  first  sight  to  show  that  this  particular  morning 
they  were  the  centre  of  a  violent  battlefield. 

Strange  are  life's  little  contrasts,  especially  in  war. 
During  the  most  eventful  part  of  that  afternoon's 
fighting,  when  the  whole  plain  below  was  tumultuous 
with  devastation,  there  was  an  officer's  soldier-servant 
sitting  behind  the  hill  from  which  I  was  watching,  on 
a  cushion  taken  from  a  car,  making  tea  for  his  mas- 
ter at  a  little  spirit  stove,  skimming  the  pages  of  an 
old  monthly  magazine,  and  whistling  Tosti's  "  Good- 
bye," or  playing  with  a  stray  mongrel  dog,  without 
the  faintest  sign  of  any  knowledge  that  such  a  show  of 


180         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

life  and  death  was  going  on  within  easy  view  over 
his  shoulder. 

Zir  and  Bala  having  been  won,  it  remained  to  cap- 
ture the  big  village  of  Yenikeuy,  which  stands  on  the 
main  road  from  the  Orliak  bridge  to  Seres.  At  5.30 
A.M.,  on  October  3rd,  the  6-inch  guns  fired  thirty-five 
salvoes  into  the  village.  Then  they  lifted  from  its 
front  edge  and  swept  through  it.  The  field-guns 
proceeded  to  repeat  this  process  exactly,  and  after 
them  the  Royal  Munsters,  and  Royal  Dublin  Fusiliers 
entered  with  little  opposition. 

But  immediately  a  very  strong  counter-attack 
started  out  from  Topolova.  At  least  three  battalions 
took  part  in  it,  and  the  long  lines  of  men  coming  on 
across  the  open  were  an  impressive  sight.  But  they 
never  got  within  rifle  range,  for  as  soon  as  they  could 
be  reached  with  the  heavies  they  had  6-inch  shells 
bursting  among  them. 

They  persevered  awhile,  for  the  Bulgar  is  a  stub- 
born fellow,  but  when  the  field-artillery  opened  on 
them  with  shrapnel,  they  turned  first  south,  then  east, 
then  broke  up  and  fled  into  the  shelter  of  the  nearest 
nullahs  and  the  last  seen  of  them  was  a  line  of  men 
disappearing  into  Kalendra.  One  more  counter- 
attack was  attempted  a  little  later  and  driven  back 
in  the  same  way  with  heavy  loss. 

But  at  4  P.M.  the  Orliak  bridge  and  other  bridges 
upon  which  we  were  dependent  for  bringing  up  rein- 
forcements were  heavily  shelled  by  some  enemy  heavy 
batteries  which  now  first  came  into  action,  and  at  the 
same  time  a  particularly  determined  counter-attack 
by  six  or  seven  battalions  advanced  upon  Yenikeuy 
and  succeeded  in  reoccupying  the  northern  part  of  it. 


THE  PUSH  FOR  MONASTIR  18i 

The  garrison  of  the  village  was  stiffened  by  another 
battalion  sent  up  from  the  river-side,  and  heavy  fight- 
ing went  on  all  night,  which  finally  secured  for  us 
undisputed  possession. 

This  attack  on  Yenikeuy  had  been  a  field-day,  too, 
for  the  armoured  motor-cars,  four  of  which  were 
given  a  run  across  the  Orliak  bridge  in  the  morning, 
and  did  some  useful  work  with  their  machine-guns, 
coming  back  with  their  tires  all  ripped  and  flattened 
by  enemy  rifle-fire. 

Next  morning  the  Bulgars  evacuated  Nevolyen  vil- 
lage after  artillery  bombardment  alone.  Hristian 
Kamila,  too,  was  evacuated.  The  bridgehead  which 
it  had  been  intended  to  create  was  now  complete,  and 
the  Bulgars  withdrew  the  greater  part  of  their  force 
behind  the  railway,  though  they  left  a  strong  garri- 
son in  Bairakli  Djuma. 

They  were  indeed  thoroughly  discouraged.  Their 
7th  Division  had  lost  a  third  of  its  fighting  strength. 
The  10th  Division,  brought  up  from  Xanthe,  had  also 
suffered  heavily.  Our  burying  parties  dealt  with 
1,500  Bulgar  corpses.  At  a  moderate  estimate  their 
losses  must  have  been  5,000.  Three  hundred  and 
seventy-five  prisoners  and  three  machine-guns  were 
taken. 

We  could  see  Bulgar  columns  marching  off  towards 
Rupel,  and  it  almost  looked  for  a  while  as  if  they 
might  be  going  to  abandon  the  Struma  valley  alto- 
gether. 

A  still  larger  operation  on  the  Struma  was  carried 
out  on  October  31st,  in  the  sense  that  we  had  more 
troops  engaged  than  at  any  one  time  before  in  the 
Balkans.  Attacks  were  made  at  about  half-a-dozen 


182        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

points  along  the  fifty-mile-long  Struma  front.  Some 
of  these  were  only  intended  as  demonstrations,  the 
main  objective  being  the  strongly  fortified  village  of 
Bairakli  Djuma,  which  stands  on  the  way  to  the 
entrance  to  Rupel  pass.  Three  new  bridges  had  been 
built  across  the  Struma  for  this  attack,  and  on  the 
night  of  the  26th  the  villages  of  Elisan,  Ormanli  and 
Haznatar  were  seized  without  opposition  as  a  taking- 
off  area.  The  attack  on  Bairakli  Djuma  was  then 
ordered  and  carried  out  on  the  morning  of  October 
30th-31st,  with  small  loss,  thanks  to  a  daring  deploy- 
ment of  three  battalions  on  the  west  of  the  village, 
which,  though  exposed  to  attack  from  the  flank,  was 
entirely  successful.  The  scheme  was  that  three  bat- 
talions should  deploy  and  attack  the  village  from  the 
west,  while  one  company  with  three  Vickers  guns 
demonstrated  and  held  the  enemy  to  the  ground  on 
the  south,  the  remaining  three  companies  being  held 
in  brigade  reserve  at  Ormanli. 

The  plan  worked  well,  the  King's  Own,  East 
Yorkshires  and  K.O. Y.L.I,  attacking  from  the  west, 
while  a  company  of  the  Yorkshires  and  Lancashires 
demonstrated  so  successfully  on  the  south  that  most 
of  the  enemy  knew  nothing  of  the  flank  attack  until 
they  were  surrounded  and  their  retreat  cut  off.  The 
total  of  prisoners  taken  by  this  surprise  attack  was 
three  officers  and  320  other  ranks,  while  one  officer 
and  seventeen  other  ranks  were  found  dead.  Our 
troops,  in  taking  the  village,  only  had  one  killed  and 
three  wounded,  though  the  subsequent  enemy  shelling 
brought  our  casualties  up  to  five  officers  and  forty- 
eight  other  ranks. 


CHAPTER  XII 
MONASTIR   RETAKEN 

AS  November  drew  on  the  heavy  autumn  rains 
/A  converted  the  trenches  in  the  Kenali  plain  into 
a  swamp  of  the  utmost  wretchedness.  There 
had  been  no  progress  there,  but  meanwhile  the 
Danube  Division,  among  the  snow  on  the  heights  in 
the  Cerna  loop,  had  taken  first  Polog,  then  Iven,  and 
finally  got  up  half-way  the  steep  side  of  Hill  1212, 
one  of  the  main  positions  in  this  confused  tangle  of 
mountains,  which,  however, — as  is  the  heartbreaking 
way  of  the  Balkans, — is  dominated  in  turn  by  the 
next  height,  Hill  1378. 

On  November  14th  an  offensive  was  ordered  along 
the  whole  line  from  Kenali  to  the  Cerna.  Two  bri- 
gades of  French  infantry  attacked  Bukri  and  what 
was  now  the  Kenali  salient  at  noon.  Three  bayonet 
assaults  were  met  by  such  heavy  machine-gun  fire 
that  they  failed;  but  at  2.30  the  attack  was  renewed, 
and  two  Bulgar  lines  at  Bukri  were  carried  and  held 
against  two  counter-attacks, — all  this  in  teeming  rain, 
penetrating  cold  and  the  worst  mud  conceivable.  The 
result  was  at  last  to  force  the  Bulgars  out  of  the 
Kenali  line,  which  they  had  held  for  two  months,  and 
back  onto  the  next  prepared  position  on  the  Bistrica 
river,  five  milec  behind,  towards  Monastir.  Twenty- 
four  pieces  of  artillery  were  taken  from  the  enemy  in 
three  days. 

188 


184         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

The  Serbs  made  prisoners  in  this  fighting  no  less 
than  twenty-eight  German  officers  and  1,100  other 
ranks, — a  big  haul  for  the  Balkans,  where  the  Ger- 
mans are  used  only  as  stiffening  for  especially  threat- 
ened positions.  These  captives  cursed  the  Bulgars 
freely,  saying  that  they  had  bolted  and  let  them  down. 

On  November  17th,  the  Serbs  carried  both  Hill 
1212  and  Hill  1378  beyond.  On  that,  two  days  later, 
without  further  pressure,  the  Bulgars  suddenly  left 
the  Bistrica  line  and  abandoned  Monastir  itself,  fall- 
ing back  down  the  road  to  Prilep. 

Like  many  things  long  and  earnestly  awaited,  the 
evacuation  of  Monastir  finally  came  as  something  of  a 
surprise.  It  seemed  when  the  winter  rains  and  snow 
began  as  if  we  should  hardly  get  there  before  the 
spring.  Even  the  night  before  the  city  was  actually 
evacuated,  when  I  was  riding  back  to  Vrbeni  from  a 
visit  to  the  Serbian  sector  of  the  front  with  some 
English  staff-officers,  and  we  saw  an  enemy  column 
marching  out  of  Opticar  village  on  the  Bistrica,  while 
earlier  in  the  afternoon  we  had  also  noticed  a  string 
of  waggons  crossing  the  Novak  bridge  to  the  other 
side  of  the  Cerna,  it  only  seemed  as  if  the  Bulgars 
were  moving  troops  from  their  centre  to  reinforce 
their  hard-pressed  left.  I  slept  that  night  in  a  shell- 
riddled  house  in  Vrbeni,  which  I  had  shared  with  some 
French  officers,  who  had  moved  on  since  the  Kenali 
lines  had  fallen.  It  was  a  dingy,  rickety  place,  its 
shattered  windows  carefully  patched  with  sheets  of 
German  maps  and  a  pencilled  screed  on  one  of  the 
doors  to  say  that  it  was  "  reserved  for  three  staff- 
officers  of  the  map-making  section  of  the  Staff  of 
General  Mackensen's  Army." 


MONASTIR  RETAKEN  185 

Next  morning,  wading  out  into  the  river  of  fluid 
mud  which  served  as  the  main  street  of  Vrbeni,  I  met 
a  Serbian  cavalry  officer  on  horseback,  clearly  in  a 
mood  of  some  excitement,  who  waved  his  hand 
and  shouted:  " De  bonnes  nouvelles!  De  bonnes 
nouvelles!  Monastir  is  taken;  the  town  is  in  flames!  " 

It  was  not  the  first  time  that  people  had  assured  me 
with  equal  emotion  of  the  capture  of  Monastir,  but 
though  one  still  felt  doubtful  it  was  the  least  one  could 
do  to  go  and  see.  So  the  mud-caked  Ford  car  was 
turned  out  with  all  speed  and  I  started  along  the  well- 
known  and  terribly  bad  road  that  led  towards  Monas- 
tir,— twelve  or  thirteen  miles  ahead. 

As  usual,  the  road  was  crowded  with  every  sort  of 
transport,  from  creaking,  solid-wheeled,  bullock- 
drawn  ox-carts  that  the  supply  service  of  Charle- 
magne's army  might  have  used,  to  three-ton  motor- 
lorries,  skidding  and  splashing  through  the  mud.  On 
either  side  were  spread  camps  and  bivouacs  and 
dumps  and  depots  of  every  kind;  heaps  of  carcasses 
of  meat,  mounds  of  petrol-tins,  piles  of  long  black 
cylinders  of  gas  for  the  observation  balloon,  timber, 
tin,  wire,  carefully  scattered  supplies  of  ammuni- 
tion. 

One  thing  caught  the  eye  at  once  as  the  presage  of 
a  day  that  would  live  in  history.  The  most  perfect 
triple  rainbow  I  ever  saw  hung  over  Monastir,  span- 
ning it  in  a  brilliant  arch  of  colour.  One  foot  rested 
on  the  mountains  to  the  west,  where  the  Italians  had 
been  fighting  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the  Russian 
and  French  troops  in  the  plain ;  the  other  was  planted 
on  the  rocky  heights  beyond  the  Cerna,  from  where 
the  Serbs,  worn  by  much  hard  fighting,  were  looking 


186         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

down  upon  the  city  which  their  dogged  determina- 
tion had  done  most  to  win. 

As  one  got  nearer  to  what  the  night  before  had  been 
the  enemy's  line  on  the  Bistrica,  the  Monastir  road 
became  less  and  less  thronged.  And  here  the  ability 
of  the  German  road-engineers  forced  itself  upon  the 
attention  by  a  remarkable  contrast.  Presumably 
there  had  been  as  much  traffic  along  the  road  up  to 
their  front  line  as  along  that  which  led  to  ours,  and 
the  weather  had  certainly  been  the  same  for  both. 
Yet,  while  our  part  of  the  Monastir  road  had  a  sur- 
face like  rock-cake  covered  with  mud  of  the  consist- 
ency of  porridge,  directly  you  passed  into  what  had 
been,  until  that  morning,  the  German  lines,  you  found 
yourself  on  a  hard,  smooth  surface  as  good  as  an 
English  road  at  home. 

I  got  to  Monastir  at  eleven.  The  first  French  and 
Russian  troops  had  marched  in  together  at  nine, 
three-quarters  of  an  hour  after  the  last  of  the  German 
rearguard  left  the  town. 

The  enemy  retreat  had  been  skilfully  arranged.  At 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  sentries  in  the  new 
French  line  opposite  the  Bulgar  trenches  on  the  Bis- 
trica had  seen  a  great  fire  start  in  Monastir.  It  was 
the  barracks,  which  the  enemy  had  set  burning. 
Then  a  little  later,  the  French  patrols  reported  that 
the  enemy  front  trenches  had  been  found  empty  in 
several  places.  The  Bistrica  line  was  accordingly 
occupied  along  its  whole  length,  the  Russians  wading 
the  stream  breast-high,  and  the  Allied  Force  began  to 
feel  forward  to  get  into  touch  again  with  the  retiring 
enemy. 

By  seven  o'clock,  the  advanced  patrols  reported 


MONASTIR  RETAKEN  187 

that  the  town  seemed  unoccupied.  They  were  then  at 
a  distance  of  two  miles  from  it,  and  as  Prince  Murat, 
a  young  French  cavalry  officer  and  descendant  of 
Napoleon's  general,  at  the  head  of  the  mounted  scouts 
of  his  regiment,  approached  the  town  at  8.30  A.M. 
he  caught  sight  of  the  last  German  battery  left  to 
protect  the  retreat  limbering  up  and  making  off  at  the 
trot. 

At  first  it  scarcely  seemed  as  if  there  were  any 
civilian  population  in  Monastir,  but  they  were  only 
hiding  in  their  shuttered  houses,  and  when  the  French 
marched  in  many  of  them  came  out  and  threw  flowers 
or  hung  up  French  and  Serbian  flags,  which  they 
must  have  hidden  somewhere  all  the  twelve  months 
the  enemy  was  there.  The  British  consulate  flag, — 
the  Union  Jack  with  an  official  "  difference  "  in  the 
centre, — had  been  tucked  away  in  a  mattress  all  that 
time. 

I  turned  into  what  used  to  be  the  "  Imperial  and 
Royal  Austro-Hungarian  Consulate  "  in  the  main 
street  of  the  town.  In  the  hall,  littered  with  broken 
packing-cases  and  other  signs  of  hurried  departure, 
were  two  placid-faced  French  Sisters  of  St.  Vincent 
de  Paul,  with  their  white-winged  headgear  as  stiff 
and  spotless  as  if  they  were  in  a  peaceful  French  coun- 
try town  instead  of  a  newly  captured  Macedonian 
city.  They  had  come  there  to  try  and  reclaim  their 
piano  which  some  German  officers  had  commandeered 
and  carried  off  to  their  quarters  at  the  consulate. 

The  nuns  said  they  had  organised  a  hospital  at  their 
convent  which  had  been  under  the  supervision  of 
German  medical  officers;  seventeen  dying  Germans 
had  been  left  behind  in  their  charge  when  the  army 


188         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

retreated  the  night  before.  '''  The  Germans  were  cor- 
rect but  brusque,"  said  one  of  the  sisters.  "  The 

Bulgars  were "  and  she  made  an  expressive  little 

grimace. 

Twice  before,  they  said,  the  Germans  and  Bulgars 
had  made  all  preparations  for  abandoning  Monastir. 
The  first  occasion  was  on  September  17th,  after  the 
retaking  of  Fiorina.  That  was  followed,  however, 
by  the  delay  necessary  for  the  slow  wheeling  round  of 
the  French  and  Russians  into  line  with  the  Serbians 
again,  facing  the  north,  a  manoeuvre  that  had  to  be 
carried  out  with  caution,  so  as  to  give  the  enemy  no 
chance  of  thrusting  himself  into  a  gap  between  them. 
So  the  enemy  took  heart  once  more. 

The  second  time  the  Bulgars  had  been  ready  to 
leave  Monastir  was  on  October  4th,  after  the  capture 
of  Petorak  and  Vrbeni  and  the  thrusting  back  of  the 
Bulgars  to  the  Kenali  lines. 

Finally,  the  army's  doctor  in  charge  of  the  nuns' 
hospital  had  gone  to  Prilep  on  November  18th  and 
telephoned  from  there  at  three  in  the  afternoon  that 
the  hospital  was  to  be  evacuated  and  transferred  to 
Prilep  that  night. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  enemy  was  thoroughly 
discouraged  and,  for  the  moment,  beaten.  Nothing 
less  would  have  caused  the  Bulgars  to  abandon  Mo- 
nastir, the  sign  and  token  of  that  dominion  in  Mace- 
donia which  they  covet.  Had  the  Allies  disposed  of 
fresh  troops  to  carry  on  the  pursuit,  we  might  have 
taken  Prilep  too,  and  pushed  the  enemy  back  into  the 
Babouna  pass  on  the  way  to  Uskub.  All  that  the 
Bulgars  left  behind  was  a  rearguard  on  the  Prilep 
road,  about  three  miles  out  from  Monastir,  to  cover 


THE  SCENE  OF  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR 
MOXASTIR,  AUTUMN,  1916.  MON- 
ASTIR  AND  LOOP  OF  THE  CERNA. 


MON ASTIR  RETAKEN  189 

their  retreat.  But  when  they  saw  that  the  French, 
Serbs,  Russians  and  Italians  were  all  equally  ex- 
hausted, that  we  had  not  a  single  fresh  division  with 
which  to  press  upon  their  heels,  but  that  the  same 
wearied  troops,  their  effectives  often  reduced  by  three- 
fifths,  who  had  been  fighting  for  six  weeks  in  the  mud 
before  Monastir,  were  now  hurried  straight  through 
the  town  and  thrown  into  action  again  beyond  it 
against  the  enemy  rearguard,  they  took  heart  and 
began  to  hold  on  in  greater  force  to  the  semicircle  of 
hills  which  dominates  Monastir  from  the  north.  They 
had  conceived  the  idea  of  keeping  the  town  within 
shell-range  and  making  it  as  far  as  possible  unin- 
habitable for  their  foes. 

This  they  have  been  able  to  do  with  effect.  For  a 
few  weeks  after  its  recapture,  Monastir  was  thronged 
with  troops,  supply-depots  and  the  headquarters  of 
various  Allied  contingents.  But  the  daily  shelling 
of  the  congested  streets  made  it  more  and  more  un- 
suitable for  all  these  purposes,  and  now,  though  the 
French  still  hold  all  the  ground  they  occupied  beyond 
the  town  to  the  north  on  November  19,  1916,  the 
place  itself  is  deserted,  the  only  population  left  being 
the  poorer  class  of  Greeks  and  Serbians,  who  live 
huddled  in  their  cellars  and  who  would  have  starved 
but  for  the  rations  issued  to  them  at  first  by  the 
military  authorities  and  later  by  the  Serbian  Relief 
Fund.  It  was  while  superintending  this  work  in 
Monastir  that  Mrs.  Harley,  a  sister  of  Lord  French, 
was  killed  by  a  shrapnel  bullet  in  one  of  the  daily 
bombardments. 

All  of  us  who  had  been  on  the  Serbian  front  knew 
and  respected  profoundly  the  courage  and  energy 


190        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

of  this  gallant,  white-haired  lady.  And  there  are  not 
a  few  other  gently-nurtured  Englishwomen  living,  if 
not  in  actual  danger,  at  any  rate  amid  dreary,  monoto- 
nous and  squalid  surroundings  on  the  Serbian  front, 
in  order  to  bring  relief  to  the  population  of  that  much- 
afflicted  region.  There  are,  for  instance,  the  Hon. 
Mrs.  Massey,  who  was  wounded  by  a  splinter  from 
an  aeroplane  bomb  while  at  her  post  in  Sakulevo, 
Miss  Stewart-Richardson,  and  several  more.  The 
Scottish  Women's  Hospitals  are  associated  more  espe- 
cially with  medical  work  in  the  field.  They  are  at- 
tached to  the  Serbian  Army  and  take  in  wounded  in 
the  ordinary  way.  The  Serbians  were  never  tired  of 
expressing  their  admiration  for  these  plucky,  cheery, 
short-skirted  girls,  in  their  grey  uniforms,  who 
worked  as  nurses  in  the  hospitals  under  the  trees  by 
Ostrovo  Lake  and  at  the  base  at  Salonica,  or  drove 
their  little  Ford  ambulances  over  the  worst  roads 
without  any  resource  to  count  on  but  their  own. 

Poor  Monastir!  It  is  the  only  town  in  Macedonia 
for  which  you  can  feel  any  liking;  most  picturesquely 
situated,  looking  southwards  down  the  long  green 
plain,  and  shielded  to  the  north  by  the  well-tilled 
slopes  of  mountains  dotted  with  little  white  villages. 
Its  streets,  though  of  rough  cobbles,  are  clean.  It 
has  a  few  modern  buildings,  and  the  rest  are  a  degree 
above  that  dreary,  ugly  squalor  that  makes  the  aver- 
age Macedonian  township  so  uninteresting.  The 
population  is  mixed,  of  course;  all  Macedonia  is  a 
salad  of  nationalities — a  fact  which  doubtless  led 
some  Balkan-travelled  cook  to  invent  the  name 
macedoine  de  fruits.  We  consequently  had  some 
little  trouble  with  enemy  agents  among  the  Bulgarian 


MONASTIR  RETAKEN  191 

section  of  the  inhabitants.  Underground  telephone 
wires  were  found  leading  to  the  enemy  positions. 

The  whole  population,  in  fact,  whatever  its  national 
sympathies,  had  to  go  through  the  outward  signs  of 
sudden  conversion  when  we  came  in,  for  the  Bulgars 
had  imposed  the  Bulgarian  language  and  writing 
with  severity.  So  all  the  Bulgarian  shop-signs  had 
to  come  down  and  Serbian  ones  go  up.  Czar  Ferdi- 
nand must  be  jerked  out  of  the  place  of  honour  on 
the  wall  and  a  portrait  of  King  Peter  put  there  in- 
stead. In  the  Balkans  every  one  has  a  picture  of  his 
political  ruler  in  the  house,  as  a  kind  of  national 
emblem.  At  the  time  of  the  Salonica  "  Revolution," 
for  instance,  the  boom  in  photographs  of  M.  Veni- 
zelos  was  tremendous,  while  hundreds  of  excellent 
studio  portraits  of  King  Constantine  could  have 
been,  and  doubtless  were,  bought  for  their  value  as 
old  pasteboard  by  some  speculator  in  the  uncertainties 
of  future  political  developments. 

There  was  one  hotel  in  Monastir  for  whose  plight  in 
this  respect  I  felt  real  sympathy.  I  went  there  to 
get  quarters  for  my  servant,  and  looking  round  for 
the  name,  saw  only  splashes  of  fresh  whitewash  in 
the  places  where  you  would  have  expected  the  sign 
of  the  hotel  to  be. 

"What's  the  name  of  the  hotel?"  I  asked  the 
Greek  proprietor. 

He  smiled  uneasily.  "  Oh,  you  will  find  it  quite 
easily  again,"  he  said;  "there's  the  main  street  just 
there  and  you  turn  up  by " 

'  Yes,  I  know;  but  what's  its  name?  " 

'  Well,"  said  the  owner,  with  hesitation,  "  it  hasn't 
got  a  name  yet." 


192         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

However,  next  morning  a  new  name  went  up.  I 
found  a  flamboyant  fresh  gilt  sign  with  the  title 
"  Hotel  Europeen  "  being  hoisted  into  place.  I  then 
learned  the  eventful  history  of  the  hotel's  designa- 
tion. When  the  Serbians  had  won  Monastir  from  the 
Turks  the  proprietor  had  suitably  commemorated  the 
event  and  striven  to  attract  official  favour  by  chang- 
ing its  original  name  to  that  of  "  Hotel  de  la  Nouvelle 
Serbie."  Three  years  afterwards,  in  the  same  month, 
the  Bulgars  had  taken  the  town  from  the  Serbs,  and 
the  establishment  quickly  became  "  Hotel  de  la 
Nouvelle  Bulgarie."  Now,  exactly  twelve  months 
later,  the  Serbs  had  recaptured  Monastir,  and  the 
"  Nouvelle  Bulgarie  "  sign  had  to  come  down  with 
a  run  to  avoid  certain  trouble.  So  the  proprietor 
told  me  that  he  had  now  given  up  trying  to  keep  in 
touch  with  these  constant  changes  of  the  town's 
nationality.  The  need  of  continually  having  his  sign 
repainted  was  eating  into  the  profits  of  his  business, 
and  delay  in  getting  rid  of  the  old  one,  or  an  error  in 
tact  in  choosing  the  new,  might  well  lead  to  harsh 
suspicions  of  the  kind  that  are  disposed  of  by  firing- 
parties  at  dawn.  So  he  had  decided  in  future  to 
hedge.  Under  the  sign  of  "  Hotel  Europeen  "  he  told 
me  he  felt  that,  for  some  time  at  any  rate,  he  could 
have  an  easy  mind.  The  armies  of  conflicting  states 
could  stream  down  the  main  street  alongside,  their 
officers  could  spend  persecuted  nights  in  his  dubious 
beds,  without  their  wrath  being  still  further  influ- 
enced by  indignation  at  the  national  sentiments 
expressed  by  the  name  of  the  hotel.  And  in  the  flush 
of  confidence  which  the  unexceptionable  yet  dignified 
title  of  "  Hotel  Europeen  "  inspired,  I  noticed,  when 


MONASTIR  RETAKEN  193 

I  came  to  pay  the  bill,  that  the  proprietor  had  raised 
his  prices  for  rooms  two  francs  above  any  other  hotel 
in  the  town. 

Monastir  was  taken  on  Sunday,  and  on  Tuesday 
the  Crown  Prince  of  Serbia  and  General  Sarrail  went 
up  by  special  train  and  drove  round  the  town.  On 
the  occasion  of  this  victory,  which  is  indeed  the  prin- 
cipal achievement  of  the  Salonica  Expedition,  General 
Sarrail  issued  a  General  Order  to  the  Army,  dated 
from  Monastir,  and  addressing  the  troops  of  each  na- 
tionality in  turn.  To  the  British  he  spoke  in  terms 
which  showed  appreciation  of  their  especially  ungrate- 
ful role.  '  Your  task,"  said  the  French  Commander- 
in-Chief,  "  has  been  most  thankless.  You  are  on  a 
front  which  has  hitherto  been  defensive,  but  you  have 
not  husbanded  your  labours  or  spared  your  efforts. 
You  are  ready  to  take  the  offensive  when  the  order 
comes." 

The  confidence  new-born  in  the  enemy  by  the  real- 
isation that,  though  we  had  driven  him  out  of  Monas- 
tir, we  were  too  weak  to  follow  him  up,  was  shown 
by  the  proclamations  their  aeroplanes  let  fall  on  the 
town.  "  People  of  Monastir,"  they  said,  "  be  of  good 
heart.  We  shall  not  shell  you  or  bomb  you,  for  we 
are  coming  to  retake  your  city." 

Probably  with  this  end  in  view,  a  whole  German 
division  had  arrived  as  reinforcements  on  the  Mo- 
nastir front,  coming  from  the  Somme.  Bulgars  had 
also  been  transferred  here  from  the  Dobrudja. 

The  fighting  around  Monastir  was  now  heavy,  the 
French  making  determined  attacks  in  the  attempt  to 
push  back  the  enemy  out  of  gun-fire  range,  and  the 
Bulgars  having  received  orders,  as  prisoners  told  us, 


194        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

not  to  retreat  a  yard.  They  were  on  Snegovo  Hill 
to  the  north  of  the  town,  on  Hill  1248,  the  scene  of 
many  bitter  encounters  since,  and  on  the  terraced 
brown  slopes  of  snow-topped  Peristeri  to  the  west, 
with  the  Cervena-Stena  ridge  running  down  towards 
Monastir. 

From  the  lower  ridges  of  Snegovo  the  battle  was  a 
spectacle  that  lingers  in  the  memory.  Below  you 
were  the  red  roofs  of  the  town,  broken  by  the  domes 
and  minarets  of  two  white  mosques.  Above  these  the 
Bulgar  shrapnel  burst  from  time  to  time  in  milk-white 
puffs,  while  the  dense  black  smoke  of  the  heavier 
shells  that  were  intended  for  the  French  batteries 
sprang  up  all  round  the  outskirts  of  the  place.  The 
French  artillery,  hidden  by  whatever  feature  of  the 
ground  afforded  shelter,  was  firing  as  fast  as  the  guns 
could  be  reloaded. 

On  the  other  side,  higher  up  Mount  Snegovo,  you 
looked  plainly  into  the  French  trenches  on  the  steep 
hillside,  and  beyond  them  on  a  further  slope,  sepa- 
rated from  the  French  by  a  hidden  depression  in  the 
ground,  were  the  Bulgarian  positions.  Once,  as  I 
watched  the  French  infantry  leap  out  of  their 
trenches  and  run  forward  to  the  attack,  an  unusual 
thing  happened.  The  French  had  passed  from  sight 
into  the  dip  in  the  ground  from  which  they  would 
be  climbing  the  slope  beyond  to  reach  the  Bulgar 
line.  And  suddenly  the  trenches  they  were  attacking 
were  outlined  by  a  fringe  of  black  figures,  which 
seemed  to  start  out  of  the  ground,  as  indeed  they 
literally  did,  for  the  Bulgars,  impatient  to  fire  more 
effectively  upon  the  attacking  French,  and  regard- 
less of  the  shrapnel  bursting  above  them,  had  sprung 


MONASTIR  RETAKEN  195 

upon  their  parapet  and  stood  there  in  full  view.  It 
was  as  though  the  bare  slope  had  been  suddenly  cov- 
ered with  a  forest  of  black  tree-trunks. 

Those  Bulgar  front-line  trenches  were  taken  by 
the  French,  but  lost  again  later.  The  bad  weather 
had  made  aeroplane  reconnaissance  of  the  enemy's 
positions  ineffective  and  the  French  did  not  know 
what  strength  the  Bulgars  had  concentrated  in  re- 
serve. These  reserves  counter-attacked  the  newly 
gained  position  and  retook  it.  Next  day,  however, 
November  28th,  the  French  retaliated  by  shelling  the 
Bulgar  front  line  heavily  for  a  time.  The  enemy 
withdrew  his  troops  while  the  shelling  lasted,  but  then 
the  French  sent  out  strong  patrols  to  make  a  demon- 
stration, which  gave  the  Bulgars  the  impression  that 
another  attack  was  about  to  be  made.  On  this,  they 
rushed  up  reinforcements  and  manned  the  front-line 
strongly  again.  The  French  patrols  were  then  with- 
drawn and  their  heavy  artillery  at  once  opened  an 
intense  bombardment  on  the  Bulgar  trenches,  which 
caused  very  heavy  losses  among  the  men  who  had  been 
crowded  into  them. 

The  town  of  Monastir  began  to  be  an  uncomfort- 
able place  to  live  in.  The  Bulgars  had  been  forced 
to  realise  that  they  had  no  chance  of  taking  it  back 
by  a  counter-offensive,  but  the  French,  on  the  other 
hand,  were  not  strong  enough  to  thrust  them  out  of- 
artillery  range.  So  the  shelling  of  the  city,  which,  for 
all  that,  only  damaged  the  civilian  population,  began 
to  become  more  regular  and  more  intense.  One  quar- 
ter, which  was  especially  exposed,  was  evacuated  and 
the  refugees  crowded  into  another.  There  was  a  grave 
shortage  of  food.  But  it  was  as  yet  impossible  to 


196 

evacuate  the  civilian  population  owing  to  the  danger 
of  blocking  up  the  road  which  was  the  single  line 
of  supply  until  the  blown-up  culverts  and  smashed 
points  on  the  railway  could  be  repaired.  To  be  in  a 
shelled  town  that  is  crowded  with  women  and  chil- 
dren is  an  unpleasant  thing.  An  almost  continual 
sound  of  apprehensive  moaning  filled  the  streets  while 
a  bombardment  was  going  on,  and  whenever  a  shell 
with  a  whirr  and  a  crash  sent  one  of  the  flimsy  houses 
flying  into  a  cloud  of  dust  and  charred  and  splintered 
fragments  the  tremulous  wail  would  rise  to  a  shriek 
of  terror. 

If  it  had  not  been  for  the  Greek  threat  in  his  rear, 
which  became  more  urgent  after  the  Athens  street- 
fighting  of  December  1st,  and  led  General  Sarrail  to 
concentrate  troops  to  meet  a  possible  Greek  attack  on 
our  communications  with  Monastir,  and  particularly 
if  we  had  had  reinforcements  to  use,  the  next  step 
after  the  taking  of  Monastir  would  have  been  a  move 
on  Resna  to  the  north-west.  Resna  is  an  important 
depot  of  supplies,  and  one  of  the  results  of  taking 
it  would  have  been  to  hamper  the  enemy's  communi- 
cations with  his  forces  in  Albania.  But  the  attempt 
to  realise  this  scheme  had  to  be  deferred  for  some 
months  more,  for,  in  addition  to  our  inadequate  num- 
bers and  our  preoccupation  with  the  Greeks,  the  mud 
and  the  snow  of  winter  now  began  to  impose  their 
annual  immobility  upon  the  armies  in  the  Balkans, 


CHAPTER  XIII 


WINTER  in  the  Balkans  is  always  a  time  of 
rain  overhead  and  mud  underfoot.  To 
move  anything  heavy,  such  as  a  gun,  the  dis- 
tance of  a  mile  or  two  is  an  affair  not  of  hours  but  of 
days,  and  can  very  often  only  be  accomplished  by  en- 
listing supplementary  assistance  in  the  way  of  addi- 
tional teams  or  motor  tractors  which  may  be  in  the 
neighbourhood  on  quite  different  business.  For  the 
men  in  the  trenches  this  weather  brings  not  a  respite 
but  an  addition  of  labour,  the  digging  of  the  dry 
season  being  varied  and  increased  by  constant  pump- 
ing and  revetting  of  the  sides  of  trenches  with  a  skin 
of  empty  sandbags  held  in  place  by  wire  netting,  in 
default  of  which  the  rain  would  simply  wash  the  sides 
of  the  trench  away.  The  roads,  as  I  have  said  before, 
go  all  to  pieces.  A  hole  eighteen  inches  deep  and  two 
yards  wide  is  a  common  thing  to  find  in  the  centre  of  a 
main  highway,  despite  all  the  patching  and  rolling 
that  goes  on  even  by  night  as  well  as  day. 

As  a  rule,  the  weather  does  not  get  really  bad  in  the 
Balkans  until  after  Christmas,  but  the  first  three 
months  of  the  year  are  most  unpleasant  and  of  a  na- 
ture to  put  all  operations  of  any  importance  out  of 
the  question. 

197 


198        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

Last  winter,  though,  1916-1917,  the  Greeks  occu- 
pied almost  as  much  of  the  attention  of  the  French 
General  Staff  as  did  the  Bulgars.  Troops,  to  which 
the  English  contributed  a  contingent  of  London  Ter- 
ritorials, were  sent  to  occupy  the  five-mile  "  neutral 
zone  "  which  it  had  now  been  agreed  to  mark  out  be- 
tween the  respective  spheres  of  influences  of  the 
Venizelists  and  the  Royalists.  In  this  zone  the  French 
had  established  posts  to  keep  the  peace  between  these 
mutually  hostile  sections  of  the  Greek  nation.  The 
neutral  zone  reached  the  sea  at  Ekaterini,  where  our 
troops  were  stationed,  being  occupied  with  making 
roads  and  building  piers. 

Meanwhile,  a  certain  amount  of  small  trouble 
broke  loose  in  the  Chalcidice  Peninsula,  which  forms 
the  eastern  side  of  the  Gulf  of  Salonica  and  lies  in 
rear  of  our  Army  area.  Armed  reservists  and  other 
Royalist  agitators  began  to  make  disturbances  there, 
which  were,  however,  suppressed  by  Venizelist 
troops.  The  most  interesting  part  of  the  Chalcidice 
Peninsula  is  Mount  Athos,  the  easternmost  of  its  three 
prongs,  which  is  a  sort  of  religious  theocracy  made  up 
of  Orthodox  monasteries  of  all  the  nationalities  that 
adhere  to  the  Eastern  Church.  They  are  of  great 
wealth,  not  only  in  the  way  of  jewels,  sacramental 
gold  plate  and  vestments,  but  also  as  the  possessors 
of  valuable  farms  scattered  all  about  the  -ZEgean, 
which  have  been  bequeathed  to  them  by  the  pious 
dead.  The  principles  of  celibacy  are  carried  so  far 
upon  this  peninsula  that  no  female  animal  of  any 
sort,  even  a  hen,  is  allowed  to  set  foot  there,  and  no 
male  is  permitted  to  spend  more  than  a  limited  time 
at  Mount  Athos  without  assuming  at  any  rate  the 


WINTER  LULL  AND  SPRING  OFFENSIVE      199 

black  habit  of  the  monk.  The  long  hair  of  the  monks 
is  tucked  up  in  a  "  bun  "  beneath  their  characteristic 
headgear,  which  is  like  a  dull  top  hat  with  the  brim 
taken  off.  They  have  a  sailing  ship,  manned  by 
themselves,  which  they  send  on  a  monthly  visit  to 
Salonica  for  purposes  of  transacting  business,  and 
one  of  the  oddest  sights  in  all  that  city  of  the 
bizarre  is  to  see  these  hybrid-looking  figures  with 
their  black  skirts,  long  hair  and  untrimmed  beards 
pulling  and  hauling  on  the  tackle  of  their  schooner. 
Since  there  were  Bulgarian  and  Greek  monks  as 
well  as  Russian  and  Serbian  in  Mount  Athos,  the 
peninsula  had  to  be  regularly  visited  by  a  destroyer 
to  ensure  that  no  illicit  supply  of  petrol  to  submarines 
was  going  on.  But  the  monks  always  received  our 
officers  with  ready  hospitality  and  were  proud  to  show 
them  the  treasures  of  their  ancient  and  religious 
foundations. 

Another  important  event  of  the  winter  affecting  the 
fate  of  the  Salonica  Expedition  was  the  meeting  of 
the  Allied  Conference  in  Rome,  which  was  understood 
to  have  been  convoked  with  the  especial  view  of  con- 
sidering Balkan  affairs.  General  Sarrail  and  Gen- 
eral Milne  were  both  summoned  there,  and  General 
Sarrail  was  able  to  make  a  full  report  of  his  position 
in  the  Balkans  in  person  to  the  Prime  Ministers,  War 
Ministers  and  Chiefs  of  the  General  Staff  of  France, 
Italy  and  Great  Britain.  The  results  of  this  discus- 
sion were,  however,  not  perceptible. 

A  big  air  raid  on  February  27th  by  fifteen  large 
German  triple-engined  aeroplanes  of  a  new  type, 
each  carrying  four  machine-guns,  was  another  event 
of  the  inactive  season.  It  caused  not  a  few  casualties, 


200         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

which  were  spread  among  the  contingents  of  the  vari- 
ous Allies,  and  a  remarkable  and  tragic  coincidence 
that  occurred  in  connection  with  it  was  that  some  of 
the  British  soldiers  who  were  wounded  in  the  first 
raid  were  taken  to  a  General  Hospital  which  was 
bombed  on  the  following  Sunday  by  another  German 
raiding  squadron.  As  a  result  of  this,  some  of  the 
wounded  of  the  Tuesday  were  killed  in  their  beds 
by  a  similar  agency  on  the  Sunday,  a  risk  against 
which  cne  would  say  that  the  chances,  whatever  they 
may  have  been  from  an  actuarial  point  of  view,  would 
under  circumstances  of  ordinary  luck  be  very  many 
hundreds  of  thousands  to  one. 

Nor  was  this  General  Hospital  the  only  sufferer 
by  German  ruthlessness.  The  very  large  English 
hospital  which  the  British  had  provided  for  the 
Serbs  (6,750  hospital  beds  in  all  were  furnished  by  the 
R.A.M.C.  for  the  Serbian  Army)  was  bombed  on 
March  12th,  in  spite  of  being  surrounded  by  a  ring 
of  most  conspicuous  red  crosses,  and  although  after 
a  similar  exploit  in  the  previous  year,  German  aviators 
had  dropped  a  message  there,  apologising  for  bombing 
it  under  the  plea  that  they  had  done  so  by  mistake.  On 
this  present  occasion,  two  nurses,  several  others  of 
the  staff,  and  a  number  of  patients  were  killed. 

One  may  take  an  opportunity  here  of  referring  to 
the  remarkably  efficient,  energetic  and  persistent  work 
in  the  Balkans  of  the  British  squadron  of  the  R.F.C., 
which,  though  it  did  not  reach  Salonica  until  the  sum- 
mer of  1916,  has  been  since  then  one  of  the  most  active 
branches  of  the  service.  Almost  every  day  the  enemy 
dumps  and  aerodromes  behind  the  front  are  bombed, 
and  only  considerable  preponderance  both  in  num- 


WINTER  LULL  AND  SPRING  OFFENSIVE      201 

bers  and  in  quality  of  machines  has  enabled  the 
Germans  to  raid  Salonica  at  all.  A  typical  morning 
of  one  of  these  Salonica  airmen,  flying  a  B.E.  12,  is  as 
follows : 

"  Met  six  hostile  machines.  Attacked  rear  one, — 
twin  tractor  biplane  carrying  four  machine-guns,  three 
firing  astern  and  one  ahead.  It  dropped  bombs  which 
missed.  Its  engines  were  both  stopped.  Attempt 
was  made  to  place  third  drum  on  Lewis,  but  it  was 
shot  out  of  pilot's  hand.  Opened  fire  with  Vickers, 
which  jammed  after  fourth  round.  Hostile  machine 
fell,  turning  on  back  when  landing.  Returned  to 
repair  Vickers  and  get  more  ammunition  for  Lewis. 
Left  again  and  met  five  more  double-engined  ma- 
chines. Attacked  one.  Petrol  seen  to  be  streaming 
out  and  observer  hanging  over  side.  Then  attacked 
by  four  remaining  machines.  Having  no  more  am- 
munition for  Lewis,  used  Vickers,  which  jammed  after 
second  round.  Returned  our  lines  at  2,000  feet,  pur- 
sued by  four  enemy  machines." 

The  R.N.A.S.,  of  whom  we  at  Salonica  saw  less,  as 
they  for  a  long  time  had  their  base  in  the  island  of 
Thasos,  also  did  a  lot  of  successful  bombing  of  rail- 
way bridges  and  burning  of  crops  in  the  enemy's 
country.  The  two  most  striking  flights  of  the  cam- 
paign were  made  by  Louis  Noel,  the  French  airman 
whom  Londoners  used  to  know  well  at  Hendon.  On 
July  3,  1916,  he  flew  to  Sofia,  dropped  bombs  and 
got  back  to  Salonica  in  five  hours,  and  on  September 
22nd  he  returned  from  a  flight  to  Bucharest  and  back 
with  a  passenger,  400  miles  each  way,  over  mountain- 
ous enemy  country,  and  under  stormy  weather  con- 
ditions. 


202         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

When  at  last,  at  the  end  of  the  enforced  inactivity 
of  the  winter,  spring  came  and  the  mud  began  to  dry, 
the  Balkan  force  stood  at  the  highest  point  of  efficiency 
that  it  had  yet  reached.  Reinforcements  and  drafts 
had  been  received  during  the  winter ;  many  roads  had 
been  built,  especially  a  remarkable  mountain  one  in 
the  loop  of  the  Cerna,  ten  hilly  miles  long  and  made  in 
twenty-two  days;  reserves  of  ammunition  had  been 
accumulated,  and  everything  prepared  for  a  spring 
offensive  which  should  test  whether,  with  the  means 
then  at  the  disposal  of  the  Allies  in  the  Balkans,  it 
was  possible  to  dislocate  the  Bulgar  front  at  any 
point  in  such  a  way  as  to  compel  their  whole  line  to 
fall  back,  and  so  win  not  a  local  tactical  advantage, 
but  a  larger  strategic  one. 

The  weight  of  enemy  effectives  against  us  was  cer- 
tainly as  strong  if  not  stronger  than  those  we  could 
bring  to  bear  upon  him,  and  he  had  incomparably  the 
advantage  of  position.  In  addition  to  this,  too,  the 
Bulgars  could  await  our  spring  attack  in  the  sure 
confidence  that  even  if  the  Allied  strength  against 
them  had  developed  to  the  point  of  being  able  to 
break  their  line  so  effectively  as  to  bring  an  advance 
northwards  towards  the  trans-Balkan  railway  at 
length  within  the  bounds  of  possibility,  the  balance 
of  the  military  situation  would  be  quickly  restored 
by  the  arrival  of  as  many  German  divisions  as  might 
be  necessary,  for  the  Germans  would  not  spare  any 
effort  to  maintain  the  present  position  in  the  Balkans. 
Hitherto  they  have  had  considerable  reason  to  be  satis- 
fied with  the  existing  state  of  affairs.  The  Salonica 
Expedition  is  not  doing  them  any  vital  harm;  it  is 
Bulgars,  not  Germans,  who  are  being  killed  by  our 


WINTER  LULL  AND  SPRING  OFFENSIVE      203 

attacks.  The  presence  of  the  Allies  in  the  Balkans 
is,  indeed,  a  guarantee  that  Bulgaria  will  not  begin  to 
wilt  and  cause  Germany  anxiety  about  her  direct 
communications  with  Turkey  and  the  Near  East ;  for 
so  long  as  we  are  pushing  at  the  door  of  her  own  ter- 
ritory and  of  the  coveted  Serbian  regions  which  she 
has  grabbed,  Germany  can  always  use  us  as  a  bogey  to 
scare  the  Bulgars  into  abject  compliance  with  the 
will  of  Berlin.  Moreover,  the  German  General  Staff 
knows  that  Salonica  is  a  heavy  drain  upon  the  re- 
sources of  the  Allies. 

Such  considerations  render  the  Germans  quite  con- 
tent to  see  the  present  deadlock  in  the  Balkans  con- 
tinue. Some  of  the  most  highly  trained  troops  in  the 
British  Army  are  held  up  there,  and  nearly  all  the 
units  of  the  Salonica  Force  have  been  together  so 
long  and  have  been  so  hard  worked  that  their  stand- 
ards of  discipline  and  efficiency  are  very  high  indeed. 

Such  reflections  may  inspire  regret,  but  the  spirit 
in  which  they  should  be  taken  is  to  remember  that 
the  circumstances  of  the  war  at  that  end  of  Europe 
have  changed  utterly,  thanks  to  the  temporary  col- 
lapse of  Russia  and  the  over-running  of  Roumania 
since  the  expedition  was  despatched.  The  English 
General  Staff,  perhaps,  had  clearer  vision  than  others 
in  being  from  the  first  somewhat  sceptical  about  the 
possibilities  of  carrying  on  operations  in  the  Balkans 
on  the  large  scale  which  alone  would  enable  definite 
results  to  be  obtained.  But  in  every  coalition  some- 
thing has  to  be  sacrificed  now  and  then  to  solidarity. 
If  we  embarked  upon  an  enterprise  which  has  not  yet 
achieved  anything  of  striking  utility  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  major  aims  of  the  war,  we  at  least  put 


204        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

heart  into  Serbia,  kept  our  alliance  united,  denied  the 
Central  Powers  access  at  an  important  point  to  the 
Mediterranean,  and  established  a  depot  of  Allied  mili- 
tary resources  in  the  Near  East  which  may  yet  play 
its  part  in  hastening  the  final  phase  of  the  disintegra- 
tion of  the  enemy's  coalition,  and  has  meanwhile 
held  up  more  than  its  own  weight  of  adversaries. 

One  circumstance  about  the  attacks  which  were 
undertaken  by  the  various  Allied  contingents  on  their 
respective  sectors  in  the  spring  of  1917  is  that  they 
were  not  simultaneous. 

The  series  opened  with  a  French  attack  on  March 
llth  in  the  sector  between  the  lakes  of  Prespa  and 
Ochrida  in  Albania.  This  met  with  the  bad  luck  in 
the  way  of  weather  which  seems  to  haunt  Allied  enter- 
prises in  this  war.  The  preparations  for  the  action 
had  been  most  laborious.  The  one  single  line  of  sup- 
ply was  by  road  from  Fiorina  round  the  southern  end 
of  Lake  Prespa,  over  seventy  miles  of  absolutely 
abominable  surface,  and  crossing,  among  other  moun- 
tains, the  Col  de  Pisoderi,  ten  miles  from  Fiorina, 
which  is  the  biggest  climb  I  have  seen  anywhere  in 
the  whole  Allied  area,  where  the  mud  was  so  thick 
that  you  had  to  run  in  first  speed  going  down  the 
steep  hill.  Pisoderi  at  this  season  could  only  be  nego- 
tiated by  pack-transport,  the  motor-lorries  taking 
the  supplies  on  from  the  top. 

The  objective  of  the  French  was  Resna  at  the  north 
end  of  Prespa  Lake.  If  the  early  success  that  was 
planned  had  been  won,  the  French  cavalry,  of  which 
five  squadrons  were  ready  waiting,  would  have  dashed 
on  to  secure  the  Kozjak  bridge  a  few  miles  south  of 
that  town.  But  delay  occurred,  and  the  result  was 


WINTER  LULL  AND  SPRING  OFFENSIVE      205 

that  the  Germans  had  time  to  bring  up  reinforce- 
ments; then  a  devastating  snow  blizzard  began.  I 
did  not  visit  this  sector  of  the  front  until  a  little  later, 
but  as  one  toiled  up  the  sides  of  those  steep,  rock- 
strewn  mountains  in  dry  weather  it  seemed  impos- 
sible to  believe  that  the  French  had  been  fighting 
there  with  the  snow  lying  several  feet  thick,  for  this 
late  snowstorm  was  one  of  the  worst  of  the  whole 
winter. 

To  co-operate  with  this  attack  which  was  to  follow 
a  N.E.  direction  from  between  Lakes  Prespa  and 
Ochrida,  a  converging  attack  north-westwards  was 
ordered  from  Monastir,  and  the  dominating  Hill 
1248,  the  chief  among  the  complex  heights  which 
overlook  the  town  from  the  north,  was  won,  with  400 
prisoners,  which  were  in  addition  to  1,400  more  cap- 
tured by  the  French  in  that  week  at  a  cost  of  com- 
paratively small  casualties  to  themselves.  But  the 
crest  of  1248  could  not  be  maintained,  and  French 
and  Bulgars  remained  each  hanging  on  to  the  oppos- 
ing slopes  of  the  mountain,  the  summit  remaining 
part  of  No  Man's  Land.  But  though  the  villages  of 
Snegovo  and  Kirklina  and  a  considerable  section  of 
the  enemy  first  line  was  won,  the  Bulgars  and  Ger- 
mans were  still  within  shell-range  of  the  town,  and  no 
further  progress  had  been  made  towards  Resna. 

These  early  spring  attacks  had  met  with  only  local 
success,  but  the  greater  part  of  April  was  spent  in 
preparing  further  offensives,  and  on  April  24th  it 
was  the  turn  of  the  British  to  engage  in  the  most  con- 
siderable action  they  have  yet  fought  in  the  Bal- 
kans,— the  attack  upon  the  Bulgar  hill  positions  by 
Lake  Doiran. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
THE  BRITISH  BATTLE  OF  DOIRAN 

THE  cluster  of  steep  hills  that  rises  from  the 
side  of  Doiran  Lake  stands  almost  at  the 
geographical  centre  of  the  Allied  Front. 
Chief  among  these  heights  are  the  positions  of  Hill 
535  with  the  Pip  ridge, — so  called  from  the  series  of 
little  hillocks  on  the  shoulder  descending  towards  the 
British  lines,  which  are  distinguished  as  Pips  1,  2,  3, 
4  and  5,  the  Grand  Couronne  and  Petit  Couronne. 
On  these  steep  slopes  the  enemy  has  three  distinct 
systems  of  trenches  about  a  thousand  yards  apart, 
each  line  higher  up  the  hillock  than  those  in  front  of 
it,  and  consequently  commanding  them.  But  it  is 
not  altitude  or  steepness  alone  which  gives  to  these 
positions  their  formidable  nature.  What  makes  them 
so  difficult  to  attack  is  the  irregularity  of  the  welter 
of  smaller  hills  at  their  feet,  which  provides  a  series  of 
natural  bastions  and  outposts. 

If  you  glance  at  a  good  contour  map  of  this  coun- 
try by  Lake  Doiran,  your  eye  will  be  confused  by  a 
tangle  of  abrupt  slopes  divided  by  steep  precipitous 
ravines  which  twist  in  and  out  among  a  bewildering 
number  of  hillocks,  spurs  and  under-features  that 
make  the  ground  especially  arduous  for  an  infantry 
advance. 

As  you  look  at  this  position  from  the  front,  you 
are  strongly  reminded  of  an  old  mediaeval  citadel. 

200 


THE  BRITISH  BATTLE  OF  DOIRAN  207 

For  there,  in  one  corner  of  the  whole  enceinte,  you 
usually  find  a  concentrated  group  of  towers  and  bas- 
tions that  formed  the  main  stronghold  of  the  defence. 
Overtopping  all  is  the  keep,  but  assembled  around 
that  are  lesser  towers  and  turrets,  each  supporting 
but  at  the  same  time  dominating  the  other,  so  that, 
should  some  of  these  works  be  conquered  by  an  enemy, 
he  still  remains  in  a  position  of  inferior  advantage 
until  he  has  won  them  all. 

The  configuration  of  the  ground  at  this  corner  of 
Lake  Doiran  is  in  exact  parallel  to  such  a  mediaeval 
fortress.  Hill  535  is  the  keep  of  the  enemy's  citadel. 
It  towers  above  the  other  hills  he  holds,  and  ever 
since  we  took  over  this  sector  from  the  French,  "  the 
Dub,"  as  it  is  also  called,  has  haunted  the  British 
Army.  Go  where  you  will,  that  blunt,  bald-browed 
head  is  looking  at  you.  Quite  a  long  way  back  from 
the  fighting-line,  as  you  go  up  a  ravine  that  ap- 
parently is  open  to  nothing  but  the  sky,  you  will  find 
the  road  screened  by  an  artificial  hedge  or  marked 
"  for  use  by  night  only,"  and  should  you  ask  why,  the 
inevitable  answer  is:  "Under  observation  from  the 
Dub."  The  Dub  is  the  strongest  point  of  the  enemy's 
third  and  main  line  of  defence.  Its  twin  height  in  the 
same  trench  system  is  Grand  Couronne,  a  mile  nearer 
Lake  Doiran,  and  of  proportions  only  slightly  less. 
Both  these  hills  are  conical  in  shape,  with  steep  and 
barren  sides.  The  white  scars  of  the  Bulgar  trenches 
stretch  across  them  like  a  girdle,  and  the  humps  of  the 
long  rampart  like  "  Pip  ridge  "  are  each  strongly 
fortified.  Pip  3  is  part  of  the  second  line  of  defence. 
Pip  &l/2  was  the  westernmost  objective  of  our  first 
attack  in  force  on  April  24th. 


208        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

After  two  days'  artillery  bombardment,  which  be- 
gan on  April  22nd,  our  first  attack  was  delivered  on 
the  night  of  April  24th. 

On  the  same  evening,  at  the  other  end  of  the 
Vardar-Doiran  front,  a  small  demonstration  was  to 
be  made  against  the  position  known  as  the  "  Nose." 

The  number  of  guns  available  on  each  side,  about 
200,  was  about  the  same ;  but  the  enemy  artillery  ran 
to  heavier  calibre,  for  they  had  several  batteries  of 
8-inch  howitzers,  which  did  us  very  great  damage  in 
our  attack.  In  strength  of  infantry,  too,  each  side 
was  approximately  equal. 

Our  aim  in  this  attack  of  April  24th  was  to  carry 
the  enemy  first  system  of  trenches,  consolidate  there, 
then  bring  up  the  guns  and  renew  the  assault  on  the 
trench  systems  behind.  The  immediate  objectives  of 
the  troops  actually  engaged  were  as  follows:  On  the 
left  the  infantry  had  to  cross  about  900  yards  of 
ground  and  dig  themselves  in  along  the  side  of  Jack- 
son ravine,  a  little  behind  the  enemy's  original  front 
line.  The  length  of  this  new  front  of  theirs  would 
be  1,500  yards ;  but  it  had  the  disadvantage  of  being 
dominated  not  only  by  the  enemy's  second  system  of 
trenches  further  up  the  slope  (the  Tongue,  the  Knot, 
the  Hilt,  etc.),  but  also  by  the  Petit  Couronne  and 
the  rest  of  the  enemy's  front  line,  which  was  the  ob- 
jective of  the  brigades  on  the  right,  so  that  if  the 
attack  on  the  left  succeeded  and  the  attack  on  the 
right  did  not,  the  troops  on  the  left  would  find  them- 
selves under  extremely  exposed  conditions  in  its  new 
line.  This,  in  fact,  is  what  did  happen.  But  the 
troops  on  the  left  had  most  difficult  conditions  to  face 
in  their  attack.  For  they  had  to  cross  the  very  steep 


THE  BRITISH  BATTLE  OF  DOIRAN  209 

and  rocky  Jumeaux  ravine,  about  300  yards  wide, 
which  separated  their  front-line  trenches  from  those 
of  the  enemy.  The  infantry  assault  was  fixed  for 
9.45  P.M.,  and  half  an  hour  before  that  time  the 
enemy  opened  a  barrage  along  our  whole  front.  All 
up  and  down  the  high  amphitheatre  of  hills  on  which 
the  Bulgarian  lines  lay,  flickering  points  of  light 
flashed  out,  and  new  batteries  constantly  sprang  into 
action  to  swell  the  thunder  of  the  re-echoing  reports. 
Powerful  Bulgar  searchlights,  one  in  Doiran  town  and 
the  other  higher  up  the  slopes  behind,  threw  their  cold 
white  light  along  our  front-line  trenches,  which  were 
fringed  by  dense  and  writhing  columns  of  the  smoke 
and  dust  of  bursting  shells.  Through  this  concen- 
trated barrage,  the  infantry  pressed  gallantly  on  to  the 
attack,  and  everywhere  entered  the  enemy's  lines,  only 
to  be  driven  out  again  by  the  heavy  fire  which  the  Bul- 
gar guns  opened  on  their  own  captured  front  trenches, 
and  by  determined  counter-attacks.  Down  by  the 
lake  our  men  twice  reached  the  enemy  trenches,  but 
had  to  fall  back  each  time.  On  their  left  they  met 
with  strong  resistance,  and  the  few  of  them  who  got 
into  the  enemy's  front  line  were  not  strong  enough  to 
stay  there.  A  battalion  attacked  Petit  Couronne, 
and  by  midnight  were  reported  to  have  won  a  footing 
there.  Other  units,  too,  gained  temporary  mastery 
of  their  objectives.  But  the  reinforcements  sent  to 
strengthen  them  could  not  get  across  that  death-trap 
of  Jumeaux  ravine,  into  which  the  Bulgar  trench 
mortars  were  dropping  a  barrage  of  projectiles  as  you 
might  pitch  pebbles  into  a  trough.  Such  was  the  force 
of  the  explosions  in  that  narrow  space  that  men  were 
blasted  to  death  against  the  walls  of  rock  by  the  shock 


210        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

alone:  this  was  in  addition  to  ceaseless  shelling  by 
their  8-inch  howitzers. 

In  the  darkness  of  the  ravine,  lit  only  by  the  flashes 
of  the  explosions  and  obscured  still  further  by  a  drift- 
ing haze  of  dust,  it  was  difficult  for  the  infantry  to 
keep  in  touch.  In  parts  of  it  there  was  so  much  water 
in  the  stream  at  the  bottom  that  the  men  had  to  wade 
waist-deep.  As  one  looked  from  an  artillery  obser- 
vation post  up  that  dust  and  flame-filled  gorge,  it 
appeared  impossible  for  any  one  to  get  across  it  alive 
at  all. 

Bulgarian  reinforcements  had  been  rushed  up  to 
the  trenches  from  the  ravines  behind  where  they  nor- 
mally live  in  comparative  safety.  They  fought  with 
stubbornness  and  determination.  "  Come  on, 
Johnny,"  they  kept  calling  through  the  din  to  our 
soldiers  struggling  up  the  rocky  slopes  to  reach  the 
gaps  in  their  wire. 

The  result  of  all  this  fighting  was  that  by  daybreak 
the  whole  of  the  right-hand  brigades  were  back  in  their 
original  lines.  The  troops,  however,  on  the  left  had 
captured  the  whole  of  their  1,500-yard  objective  and 
held  it  throughout  the  night  against  four  counter- 
attacks. The  position,  though  to  this  extent  im- 
proved in  our  favour,  was  now  an  awkward  one.  We 
had,  so  to  speak,  advanced  with  one  foot  and  been 
unable  to  bring  the  other  up  alongside  it. 

One  satisfactory  feature  of  the  fighting  was  the 
chivalrous  way  in  which  the  Bulgarians  allowed  our 
stretcher  parties  to  go  out  in  broad  daylight  between 
the  lines  and  pick  up  wounded  who  were  left  lying 
there  after  the  night  attack.  So  steep  are  the  rocky 
slopes  of  the  Jumeaux  ravine  and  so  completely  is  it 


THE  BRITISH  BATTLE  OF  DOIRAN  211 

swept  by  enemy  fire  that  it  would  otherwise  have  been 
extremely  difficult  to  bring  in  the  unfortunate  fel- 
lows who  had  been  left  behind  when  we  retired  from 
the  enemy  trenches.  But  the  morning  after  the  fight- 
ing our  doctors  and  stretcher-bearers  with  great  gal- 
lantry stepped  out  directly  into  the  open,  trusting  to 
no  other  protection  than  the  Red  Cross.  For  a  mo- 
ment fire  was  opened  upon  them  from  the  Bulgar 
trenches,  but  almost  immediately  an  enemy  officer 
jumped  up  on  their  parapet,  waving  a  blue  flag.  The 
fire  at  once  ceased,  and  a  message  was  evidently  tele- 
phoned back  to  the  Bulgarian  batteries,  for  there  was 
no  shelling  while  our  stretcher  parties  were  at  work. 
The  Bulgars  even  allowed  one  of  them  to  walk 
through  a  gap  in  their  wire  and  pick  up  a  man  who 
was  lying  within  ten  yards  of  the  enemy's  parapet. 

There  was  now  a  lull  in  the  fighting  for  a  fortnight, 
during  which  time  the  position  remained  as  it  had  been 
on  the  morning  of  April  25th,  the  troops  on  the  left 
maintaining  the  newly  won  footing  in  the  enemy  front 
line,  though  under  miserably  rainy  weather  conditions, 
which  were  made  even  more  trying  by  the  fact  that 
the  men,  living  like  rats  in  holes  in  the  side  of  Jackson 
ravine,  could  not  have  warm  food  or  even  tea,  while 
they  were  so  overlooked  by  the  enemy  that  to  stand 
up,  much  less  to  move  about,  brought  upon  them  shell- 
ing and  enfilading  machine-gun  fire. 

A  French  attack  at  Monastir  and  in  the  Cerna  loop 
was  to  have  coincided  with  this  offensive  of  ours,  but 
heavy  snow,  even  at  this  advanced  season  of  the  year, 
came  on  to  delay  the  operation.  The  first  attack  of 
any  importance  made  by  the  Greek  contingents  at  the 
front  took  place,  however,  on  the  evening  of  May  5th, 


212         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

and  gained  ground  to  the  extent  of  500-1,500  yards, 
on  a  front  of  three  miles  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
Vardar. 

The  next  day  we  started  artillery  preparation 
again  for  a  renewed  assault  upon  the  Doiran  sector, 
though  this  time  only  holding  attacks  were  to  be  made 
west  of  the  Jumeaux  ravine,  the  main  effort  being 
directed  to  capturing  the  enemy's  front-line  trenches 
between  that  and  the  lake.  The  Bulgars  had  by  now, 
however,  received  reinforcements  in  guns,  and  four 
new  regiments  of  infantry,  though  the  latter  were  in 
a  rather  weakened  state. 

With  the  last  of  the  daylight  on  the  evening  of 
May  8th,  we  began  a  violent  final  bombardment  of 
the  enemy's  line.  Right  and  left,  in  front  and  behind, 
his  trenches  sprang  into  fountains  of  flying  earth. 
The  dense  smoke  was  pushed  slowly  along  the  bare 
slopes  by  the  evening  breeze,  until  by  the  time  dark- 
ness fell,  the  whole  of  the  narrow  front  which  our 
infantry  was  waiting  to  attack  was  covered  with  a 
heavy  mist,  through  which  the  brilliant  Bulgar  star 
shells  shone  with  no  more  than  a  sullen  glow. 

Night  had  scarcely  fallen  when,  in  answer  to  red 
and  green  flares  thrown  up  from  Petit  Couronne,  the 
Bulgar  batteries  on  the  high  ridge  behind  Doiran 
town  began  a  like  bombardment  of  our  own  entrench- 
ments. The  enemy  was  thoroughly  aroused.  His 
searchlights  played  anxiously  along  our  front.  The 
unmistakable  sharp  "  crump "  of  trench  mortars 
could  be  heard  mingling  with  the  drum-like  din  of  the 
flickering  batteries  on  the  distant  slopes.  Some- 
times would  come  a  lull  of  a  few  short  seconds,  and 
while  it  lasted  the  "  croak-croak  "  of  the  frogs  in 


THE  BRITISH  BATTLE  OF  DOIRAN  £13 

Doiran  Lake  alone  broke  the  peace  of  the  spring 
night,  as  it  had  done  for  thousands  of  years  before 
high  explosives  were  invented. 

Five  minutes  more  to  "  X,"  the  secret  hour  fixed  in 
advance  for  the  first  wave  of  infantry  to  cross  the 
parapet.  The  uproar  of  our  own  guns  reached  its 
maximum;  the  flames  of  the  discharges  flickered  like 
summer  lightning  all  round  the  hills.  By  this  time, 
one's  view  of  that  formidable  Jumeaux  ravine  which 
protects  the  front  of  the  enemy's  position  like  a  moat, 
was  just  an  opaque  blur,  among  which  countless 
lights  of  varying  intensity  flared  and  flashed  without 
ceasing.  Overhead,  just  visible  as  a  black  shadow 
against  the  violet  sky,  one  of  our  aeroplanes  droned 
by  and  crossed  over  into  the  enemy's  territory. 

Then  suddenly  broke  out  a  fierce  rattle  of  rifles 
and  machine-guns.  Our  men  were  over  the  parapet 
and  moving  across  that  tumultuous,  shell-pounded 
open,  and  for  the  rest  of  the  night  the  only  explana- 
tion of  what  was  happening  before  one's  eyes  came 
in  the  form  of  scrappy  telephone  messages  from 
Artillery  Brigade  Headquarters  to  the  battery  com- 
mander. 

The  result  of  the  night's  fighting  was  in  the  end 
exactly  the  same  as  that  of  the  previous  attack.  The 
enemy  line  was  entered,  but  made  untenable  for  us 
by  bombing  and  counter-attacks. 

Just  before  dawn,  the  sectors  on  either  side  of 
Petit  Couronne  were  recaptured  by  the  enemy  with 
the  bomb  and  bayonet.  But  the  infantry  on  Petit 
Couronne  still  stood  their  ground.  They  were  on  the 
southern  slope  of  the  hill,  the  top,  with  the  trench 
on  the  edge  of  it,  being  empty.  When  day  broke, 


214         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

and  all  through  the  morning  of  May  9th,  one  could 
see  them  moving  about  there,  picking  up  wounded 
and  occasionally  working  up  in  little  parties  to  the  top 
of  the  hill,  where  they  would  be  met  by  enemy  shell- 
fire.  Their  colonel  was  wounded,  but  they  hung  on 
to  Petit  Couronne  until  12.30  P.M.,  when  they  were 
called  back,  since  the  rest  of  the  line  had  been  evacu- 
ated, and  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  maintain 
their  position  there. 

Meanwhile,  troops  to  the  west  of  Krastali  were 
carrying  our  line  forward,  but  as  the  broad  tract  of 
ground  here  between  our  positions  and  the  enemy's 
was  only  occupied  by  a  few  unimportant  outposts,  this 
amounted  to  little  more  than  a  re-siting  of  our 
trenches. 

The  natural  strength  of  the  enemy's  line  had 
combined  with  his  equality,  if  not  superiority,  of  num- 
bers to  render  his  resistance  effective,  not  only  against 
us  but  at  other  points  where  he  was  attacked  along 
the  Allied  line. 

For  there  were  going  on,  simultaneously  with  this 
attack,  similar  Allied  offensive  movements  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  Vardar  by  the  French  and  Greeks, 
among  the  Moglena  mountains  by  the  Serbs,  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  Cerna  river  by  the  Serbs  and  the 
Russians  brigaded  with  them,  in  the  loop  of  the  Cerna 
by  the  French,  Russian  and  Italians,  and  especially 
on  that  semicircle  of  hills  west  and  north  of  Monastir, 
where  the  French  were  faced  by  a  strong  concentra- 
tion of  Germans,  Austrians  and  Bulgars.  Local 
improvements  of  our  line  were  made  at  several  points, 
but  nowhere  was  it  found  possible  to  drive  a  wedge 
into  the  Bulgar  front. 


THE  BRITISH  BATTLE  OF  DOIRAN  215 

And  now  the  spring  campaigning  season  was  near- 
ing  its  end,  and  it  was  time  to  think  of  what  disposi- 
tions should  be  taken  for  the  unhealthy  summer.  The 
sector  principally  concerned  by  the  approach  of  the 
hot  weather  was  the  Struma.  If  we  were  to  stay 
down  by  the  malarial  riverside,  nothing  could  pre- 
vent a  repetition  of  the  heavy  sick-list  of  the  previous 
year.  We  were  obliged  to  come  up  into  the  hills,  and 
preparations  for  this  withdrawal  had  been  going  on, 
in  fact,  for  some  months.  But  to  delude  the  enemy  as 
to  our  intentions  an  attack  was  made  on  May  15th 
upon  three  of  his  advanced  groups  of  trenches  cover- 
ing the  approach  to  the  fortified  village  of  Spatovo, 
which  in  turn  bars  the  way  to  the  Rupel  pass. 

These  systems,  known  as  the  Essex,  Drumstick  and 
Ferdie  groups,  were  carried  and  seventy  prisoners 
taken.  The  same  evening  a  brigade  occupied  Kumli 
village,  where  they  were  heavily  shelled,  being  under 
direct  observation  from  Savjak  ridge,  opposite  them, 
but  nevertheless  held  their  ground.  The  other  troops 
also  moved  up  the  railway  line  to  Kupri  in  co- 
operation. 

Though  there  had  been  little  action  of  a  prepared 
character  on  the  Struma  since  the  successful  attacks  on 
Zir,  Bala,  Yenikeui  and  Bairakli  Djuma  the  previous 
autumn,  there  had  been  constant  patrol  activities,  for 
there  was  room  enough  between  the  opposing  lines 
for  this  to  be  developed  on  a  large  scale.  The  Yeo- 
manry held  points  out  in  front  every  night  where 
they  were  frequently  attacked  by  the  Bulgars.  The 
"  Battle  of  the  Level  Crossing "  became  almost  a 
standing  fixture,  and  the  infantry  met  constantly  in 
Patrol  Wood,  between  Kalendra  and  Hristos. 


216        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

Ambushing  was  developed  to  a  fine  art  by  our 
troops  on  the  Struma,  and  here  the  infantry  had  an 
advantage  over  the  cavalry,  for  a  mounted  man's  head 
can  be  seen  coming  above  the  rank  crops  of  maize  and 
the  banks  of  sunken  roads,  so  that  the  enemy  can  lie 
up  for  him  with  greater  certainty. 

But  now  (summer,  1917)  we  have  withdrawn  the 
main  part  of  our  troops  from  the  line  we  had  estab- 
lished beyond  the  Struma,  and  hold  only  a  series  of 
fortified  bridgeheads  which  would  be  quickly  rein- 
forced from  the  hills  if  the  enemy  came  on;  but  the 
Bulgar  is  as  well  aware  of  the  unhealthiness  of  the 
Struma  as  we  are.  He  put  out  placards:  "  We  know 
you  are  going  back  to  the  hills :  so  are  we,"  and  now 
he,  too,  only  has  a  strong  outpost  line  in  the  plain. 
The  only  forces  that  hold  the  Struma  valley  in 
strength  are  the  mosquitoes,  and  their  effectives  may 
be  computed  by  thousands  of  millions. 


CHAPTER  XV 

KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE,  AND 
THE  OCCUPATION  OF  THESSALY 

THE  situation  in  Athens  all  this  time  showed  no 
improvement  in  the  way  of  the  renunciation  by 
the  King  of  his  pro-German  sympathies.    Nor 
had  the  Allies  in  their  indecision  and  unwillingness  to 
take  extreme  measures  done  anything  to  force  him  out 
of  the  path  of  hostility,  veiled  by  a  guise  of  neutrality, 
in  which  his  inclination  kept  him. 

There  seems  to  have  been  in  England  at  this  time 
a  general  feeling  of  rather  naive  astonishment  that 
King  Constantine  should  ever  have  adopted,  much  less 
persisted,  in  this  unfriendly  attitude.  We  still  have 
a  somewhat  insular  standpoint  in  these  matters,  and 
do  not  easily  bring  ourselves  to  view  a  situation  from 
the  angle  of  the  foreigner.  There  are  no  grounds 
for  defending  King  Constantine;  he  acted  unconsti- 
tutionally, deceitfully,  treacherously;  and  besides  be- 
ing false  to  his  Serbian  allies,  did  his  best  to  bring 
to  naught  our  efforts  to  help  them.  He  was  wrong 
even  in  his  most  plausible  argument, — that  he  was 
acting  for  the  good  of  his  people.  But  I  believe  it  is 
incorrect  to  imagine,  as  apparently  many  did,  that  his 
opposition  to  us  was  inspired  by  sheer  perversity  and 
German  pig-headedness.  This  refusal  to  credit  King 
Constantine  with  any  sincerity  or  regard  for  the  in- 
terests of  his  subjects,  the  Greeks,  had  the  disadvan- 

217 


218         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

tage  at  the  time  of  breeding  the  constant  expectation 
in  England  that  he  would  suddenly  see  the  error  of 
his  ways,  and  turn  and  be  converted  to  readiness  to 
co-operate  with  Venizelos  on  behalf  of  the  Allies. 
This  seemed  a  consummation  so  reasonable  and  in- 
evitable that  we  were  always  inclined  to  be  patient 
and  moderate,  and  give  him  just  one  more  chance. 

But  the  King's  misguided  hostility  towards  the 
Entente  had  its  origin  in  many  motives,  and  some  of 
these  at  least  were  sincere.  To  begin  with,  King 
Constantine  was  naturally  an  obstinate  man.  You 
needed  only  to  look  at  his  big  square,  fleshy,  heavy 
head  for  a  sign  of  that.  He  was  imbued,  too,  with 
the  doctrine  of  the  Divine  right  of  kings.  Veni- 
zelos himself  told  me  that  when,  in  September,  1915, 
he  urged  Constantine  to  fulfil  his  treaty  obligations  to 
Serbia,  the  King  replied:  "  I  am  content  to  leave  the 
internal  affairs  of  my  country  to  my  Government,  but 
for  its  foreign  relations  I  hold  myself  alone  respon- 
sible before  God." 

Furthermore,  the  King  had  been  trained  as  a  sol- 
dier in  the  German  Guard,  and,  like  others  among 
his  generals  of  similar  experience,  he  saw  during  the 
first  year  of  the  war  a  translation  into  action  by  the 
Germans  of  so  many  of  the  lessons  which  he  had 
learnt  in  theory  at  the  Kriegschule  that  he  was  very 
naturally  filled  with  a  profound  admiration  for  the 
genius  and  infallibility  of  the  German  military  ma- 
chine. "  The  Germans  may  not  win,  but  they  cannot 
be  beaten  in  a  hundred  years,"  said  King  Constan- 
tine to  a  friend  of  mine,  walking  in  his  garden  in  the 
summer  of  1915,  and  the  ties  which  bound  the  Greek 
King  to  Germany  were  concisely  defined  by  the  Ger- 


KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE  219 

man  Emperor  himself  when,  on  August  4,  1914,  at 
the  very  beginning  of  the  war,  he  caused  the  Greek 
Minister  in  Berlin  to  telegraph  to  his  master:  "  The 
Kaiser  asks  you, — appealing  to  you  as  a  comrade,  and 
reminding  his  brother-in-law  that  Greece  kept  Kavalla 
thanks  to  the  Kaiser's  support, — to  mobilise  your 
army,  to  place  yourself  at  his  side,  and  to  march  with 
him  hand  in  hand  against  Slavism  and  the  common 
enemy.  If  Greece  does  not  side  with  Germany," 
added  Emperor  William  threateningly,  "  there  will  be 
a  complete  breach  between  Greece  and  the  Empire." 
And  all  these  influences,  beliefs  and  prejudices  which 
combined  to  keep  King  Constantine  a  German  vassal 
were  fortified  and  encouraged  by  his  wife,  that  able 
and  strong-minded  lady,  the  Kaiser's  sister,  Queen 
Sophia. 

Remember,  too,  that  this  Balkan  monarch  very 
naturally  based  his  opinion  of  the  Allies  chiefly  upon 
their  conduct  of  the  war  in  his  immediate  neighbour- 
hood, and  their  treatment  of  questions  in  which  he 
and  his  people  were  chiefly  interested.  And  what  a 
melancholy  spectacle  of  military  failure  and  diplo- 
matic inefficiency  it  was  that  we  placed  beneath  his 
eyes !  There  was  the  Dardanelles.  Before  that  opera- 
tion began  the  Allies  proposed  that  the  Greeks  should 
co-operate  in  it  with  us.  King  Constantine  and  his 
General  Staff  replied :  "  If  you  attack  the  Dardanelles 
you  will  fail;  they  are  impregnable;  we  investigated 
the  matter  thoroughly  in  the  first  Balkan  War." 
The  Allies  paid  no  attention  to  this  warning;  at  that 
stage  they  could  probably  hardly  have  done  so  if  they 
would.  They  went  ahead,  attacked  the  Dardanelles, 
and  failed  most  expensively.  The  obvious  result  was 


220        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

that  the  military  foresight  of  King  Constantine  and 
his  General  Staff  rose  immensely  in  their  own 
estimation. 

The  summer  of  1915  went  on;  they  watched  our 
diplomats  and  our  statesmen  at  home  being  hopelessly 
bluffed  by  the  Bulgarians.  They  themselves,  as  na- 
tives of  the  Balkans,  knew  well  the  bitter  hatred  of 
Bulgar  for  Serb,  the  deadly  resentment  in  Sofia  of 
the  Treaty  of  Bucharest,  the  fierce  resolve  of  the  Bul- 
garians not  to  rest  until  they  had  won  back  what  they 
wanted  of  Macedonia.  Our  politicians,  complacently 
unaware  that  any  special  or  local  knowledge  was  re- 
quired for  dealing  with  Balkan  questions,  gulped 
down  the  reassuring  dissimulations  of  M.  Radoslavoff, 
and  were  lulled  into  fatuous  security  by  a  nation  of 
Balkan  peasants  until  the  latter  were  ready  to  strike. 
But  the  contempt  which  the  Greeks  felt  for  our  inade- 
quate diplomacy  was  increased  to  indignation  when 
it  was  found  that  in  the  course  of  our  negotiations 
with  Bulgaria  we  had  proposed  that  she  should  take 
the  Greek  port  and  the  district  of  Kavalla  as  a  set-off 
against  what  she  demanded  from  the  Serbians.  What 
made  it  worse  was  that  no  mention  of  this  altruistic 
proposal  had  been  made  to  the  Greeks,  nor  were  steps 
even  taken  to  ascertain  whether  the  Bulgars  would 
accept  the  proffered  territory  before  the  offer  was 
officially  made ;  the  Greek  people  had  the  mortification 
of  seeing  its  own  possessions  thrown  into  a  bargain  as 
a  make-weight  by  one  side,  contemptuously  rejected 
by  the  other,  and  all  without  their  views  as  to  this 
proposed  disposal  of  their  territory  being  ascertained 
at  all.  So  that  when  the  Bulgarians  at  length  at- 
tacked the  Serbs,  and  the  Greek  King,  looking  round, 


KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE  221 

saw  that  nowhere  had  the  war-situation  changed  con- 
spicuously in  favour  of  the  Allies,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  he  should  have  persevered  in  his  original  opinion 
that  the  Germans  were  the  winning  team.  That  being 
so,  he  was  naturally  anxious  not  to  be  on  the  other  side. 
Hence  his  unconstitutional  overthrow  of  M.  Veni- 
zelos,  who  was  preparing  Greece  to  join  the  Allies, 
and  hence  the  consistency  of  his  subsequent  efforts  to 
keep  out  of  the  war  on  the  side  of  the  Entente  at  all 
costs,  while  showing  his  personal  sympathy  for  the 
Germans  by  allowing  their  agents  full  liberty  of 
propaganda  and  action  in  his  territory,  and  by  doing 
all  he  could  himself  to  obstruct  and  restrict  our  action 
in  Macedonia.  What  was  at  the  back  of  the  King's 
mind  in  all  this  was  the  thought :  "  The  Germans  will 
ultimately  win.  When  they  have  won  I  want  to  be 
able  to  say  to  them,  *  I  could  not  join  you  in  the 
field ;  the  situation  in  my  kingdom  forbade  it ;  but  this 
and  that  have  I  done,  so  far  as  in  me  lay,  to  help  you 
and  hinder  your  enemies.' ' 

The  difference  between  the  political  short-sight  of 
the  King  and  the  political  long-sight  of  M.  Veni- 
zelos  lay  simply  in  this, — that  Venizelos  looked  be- 
yond the  Allies'  blunders  and  delays  and  failures  in 
the  present  and  saw  the  vast  resources  and  latent  pow- 
ers that  would  in  the  long  run  make  their  success  in- 
evitable. He  realised  that  the  future  welfare  and  de- 
velopment of  Greece  would  depend  upon  them.  The 
King,  on  the  other  hand,  could  not  see  so  far  ahead. 
Impressed  by  the  present  strength  of  the  Germans 
and  by  the  initial  failures  and  mistakes  of  the  Entente, 
he  sincerely  believed  that  the  interests  of  his  people 
were  united  with  those  of  the  Central  Powers.  That 


222         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

belief  cost  him  in  the  end  his  throne.  These  two 
figures,  Venizelos  and  Constantine,  therefore,  were 
by  nature  irreconcilable,  antipodean.  Yet  for  months 
our  diplomats  clung  with  feeble  obstinacy  to  the  hope 
of  being  able  to  bring  them  together,  trying  to  mix 
oil  with  water,  to  promote  harmony  between  the  wolf 
and  the  sheep-dog.  And  all  this  time  Germany  by 
her  thorough  propaganda  work  did  much  to 
strengthen  the  King's  hand,  while  we  did  nothing  at 
all  to  support  Venizelos.  But  the  faith  of  M.  Veni- 
zelos in  the  Allies,  which  still  is  strong,  must  be  con- 
sidered all  the  more  praiseworthy  when  you  remember 
how  Serbia  and  Roumania  have  been  overrun  at  the 
very  threshold  of  his  country.  It  is  a  true  remark 
that  M.  Venizelos  is  a  European  and  not  merely  a 
Balkan  statesman.  He  can  take  big  views. 

In  September,  1916,  M.  Venizelos  and  his  friends 
at  Athens  decided  that  passive  protest  against  the 
unconstitutional  action  of  the  King  had  lasted  long 
enough,  that  the  country  was  being  lulled  into  inertia 
by  their  own  apparent  acceptance  of  the  existing  state 
of  things,  and  that  the  time  had  come  to  take  a  strong 
line.  They  determined  to  leave  the  capital  (which 
was  done  by  stealth)  and  proceed  to  Crete,  where  the 
idea  of  a  Government  independent  of  the  King  ap- 
peared in  the  form  of  the  "  triumvirate," — Venizelos, 
Admiral  Condouriotis  and  General  Danglis. 

After  touring  the  Greek  islands,  which  are  the 
strongholds  of  his  party,  Venizelos  came  to  Salonica. 
His  arrival  on  October  9th  was  in  a  way  a  surprise. 
He  himself  did  not  know  when  he  landed  whether  he 
would  stay  there  or  return  to  Mitylene.  The  question 
was,  of  course,  one  that  depended  to  some  extent  on 


KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE  223 

the  views  of  the  Allies,  who  might  have  seen  disadvan- 
tages in  the  establishment  of  a  Macedonian  Govern- 
ment at  their  military  base.  But  no  objection  was 
raised,  and  M.  Venizelos,  after  a  landing  of  great 
enthusiasm,  at  which  General  Sarrail  appeared  for 
a  moment,  though  unofficially,  established  the  head- 
quarters of  the  "  triumvirate  "  in  the  villa  which  had 
hitherto  been  King  Constantine's  palace  at  Salonica. 
It  is  an  ugly  house,  resembling  a  pavilion  at  a  Shep- 
herd's Bush  Exhibition,  and  decorated  and  furnished 
in  the  abominable  taste  that  comes  of  imitating  Ger- 
man standards,  which  in  matters  of  art  and  archi- 
tecture are  supreme  in  the  Balkans,  thanks  to  their 
commercial  domination  of  that  field. 

Venizelos  at  first  abstained  from  definite  renun- 
ciation of  allegiance  to  the  King.  The  purpose  of  his 
independent  Government  was  but  to  guide  Greece 
into  the  path  he  considered  the  only  one  for  her  wel- 
fare. "  We  consider  Greece,"  he  said  to  me  on 
October  10th,  "to  be  a  kingdom  with  two  Govern- 
ments in  it,  as  in  the  case  of  all  countries  at  civil  war, 
though  actual  civil  war  is  the  development  we  are 
trying  to  avoid."  The  heading  "  Kingdom  of  Greece  " 
was  maintained  on  the  Provisional  Government's  de- 
crees. Venizelos,  however,  desired  recognition  by 
the  Powers  as  a  Government  de  facto,  and  got  it  in 
the  following  January,  when  Earl  Granville  and  M. 
de  Billy  were  appointed  English  and  French  Envoys- 
Plenipotentiary  to  the  Provisional  Government. 

But  the  treacherous  attack  on  British  and  French 
troops  in  Athens  on  December  1st  changed  every- 
thing. 

A  demand  for  the  surrender  of  ten  batteries  of 


224        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

artillery  by  the  Greek  Government  had  not  met  with 
compliance,  and  the  French  Admiral,  Dartiges  du 
Fournet,  landed  men  from  the  French  and  English 
warships  to  occupy  Athens,  on  some  alleged  under- 
standing with  the  King  that  there  would  be  no  oppo- 
sition. The  men  were  ambushed  and  fired  on,  the 
French  losing  eighty-three  killed,  and  the  English  a 
smaller  number.  The  demonstration  collapsed  in  gro- 
tesque failure  and  our  landing-parties  were  with- 
drawn. 

It  needs  only  a  slight  acquaintance  with  the  over- 
weening mercurial,  semi-Oriental  temperament  of  the 
Greek  to  imagine  how  cock-a-hoop  and  arrogant  the 
epistrates  or  armed  civilians  who  formed  the  King's 
supporters  at  once  became.  They  had  beaten  Allied 
troops  in  action;  the  Allies  had  swallowed  the  insult 
meekly.  They  and  their  King,  they  at  once  con- 
cluded, were  invincible.  A  reign  of  terror  began 
against  the  Venizelists  of  Athens.  Many  were  shot 
in  prison;  many  beaten  and  robbed. 

We  were  nearer  to  war  with  the  Greeks  on  Decem- 
ber 2nd  than  we  had  ever  been,  and  were  none  too 
well  disposed  for  receiving  their  attack.  A  British 
monitor  was  sent  to  blow  up  the  railway  line  from 
Athens  to  Larissa  at  the  top  of  the  Lamia  gulf, 
where  it  runs  on  culverts  within  range  of  the  sea,  but 
the  order  was  countermanded  before  it  could  be 
executed.  Once  more  King  Constantine  was  let  off 
with  a  serious  talking  to,  which  took  the  form  of  a 
demand  that  he  should  withdraw  all  his  army  from 
Thessaly,  "  above  the  strength  necessary  to  maintain 
order,"  into  the  Peloponnese,  south  of  the  Corinth 
canal.  But  before  this  withdrawal  could  be  begun  or 


KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE  £25 

arrangements  made  for  controlling  the  process,  our 
position  at  Salonica  was  most  awkward. 

The  Allied  Army  had  just  retaken  Monastir.  We 
were  pressing  hard  upon  the  Bulgars,  in  the  hope  of 
driving  them  out  of  shell-range  of  the  town  and  back 
to  Prilep.  This  offensive  was  now  stopped  at  once, 
and  new  positions  taken  up  to  face  the  fresh  danger 
threatening  our  rear. 

And  this  danger  had  distinct  existence  since  we 
were  connected  with  Monastir, — a  point  to  the  main- 
tenance of  which  we  were  henceforth  committed, — 
by  a  single  line  of  railway  a  hundred  miles  long. 
This  line  makes  a  great  loop  southwards  at  Verria, 
towards  Old  Greece,  and  was  consequently  exposed 
to  the  possibility  of  being  cut  and  rendered  useless  by 
raiding-parties  of  the  new  Greek  enemy. 

In  conformity  with  the  turn  the  situation  had 
taken,  Greek  royalist  troops  moved  north  in  a  threat- 
ening manner,  and  General  Sarrail  recalled  French 
detachments  southwards  to  be  ready  to  oppose  them 
if  necessary. 

The  events  of  December  1st  had,  too,  a  great  effect 
on  M.  Venizelos'  attitude.  "  Between  me  and  the 
King  there  is  now  a  lake  of  blood,"  he  said  to  me, 
speaking  with  a  vehemence  noticeable  even  above  his 
usual  energetic  and  emphatic  manner.  '  Two  hun- 
dred of  my  friends  have  been  killed  because  they  held 
different  political  opinions  from  those  of  the  King; 
because  they  thought  that  Greece  would  do  better  to 
join  with  the  Entente  than  with  the  Central  Powers. 
For  that  they  were  murdered.  King  Constant ine  and 
I  henceforth  face  each  other  across  an  impassable 
abyss.  If  the  majority  of  the  people  of  Greece  should 


226         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

choose  after  the  war  still  to  keep  the  King  as  their 
ruler,  I  and  my  friends  will  have  to  leave  the  coun- 
try." He  was  ready  for  the  idea  of  war  with  the 
Royalists,  should  they  attack  the  Allies.  "  If  I  had 
received  from  the  Allies  the  material  and  equipment 
promised  me  when  I  came  here,"  he  said,  "  I  should 
now  be  able  to  hold  up  all  the  royalist  army  with  the 
troops  of  the  Provisional  Government  alone.  We 
promised  to  raise  an  army  corps  of  three  divisions, 
and  even  two  army  corps,  by  March,  1917,  if  the 
necessary  equipment  was  provided.  So  far  (Decem- 
ber, 1916)  none  has  been  received.  The  one  division 
we  have  raised  was  equipped  with  what  we  had  in 
hand  except  for  about  one-tenth  of  its  material.  If 
in  a  week  I  could  have  rifles  and  uniforms,  I  could 
instantly  mobilise  the  reservists  of  Crete  and  of  the 
divisions  of  Chios,  Samos  and  Mitylene.  With  these 
two  divisions  alone,  we  could  hold  up  the  royalist 
Army.  Should  the  Entente  find  King  Constantine's 
troops  on  its  hands,  that  will  be  its  own  fault." 

But  though  King  Constantine  never  actually  at- 
tacked us,  he  was  always  posing  as  being  on  the  point 
of  doing  so,  and  by  that  means  distracted  the  atten- 
tion and  drew  off  some  of  the  strength  of  the  Allied 
Army  in  the  Balkans  from  its  main  objective — the 
Bulgarian  and  German  forces  in  front  of  it.  The 
Allied  fleets  were  blockading  the  coasts  of  Greece  all 
through  the  spring  of  1917,  but  though  this  caused 
a  certain  shortage  of  bread,  which  forms  a  much 
larger  part  of  the  food  of  the  Balkan  peoples  than 
of  our  own,  it  did  not  reduce  the  King  to  obedience 
by  bringing  him  into  danger  of  starvation,  one  reason 
being  that  a  country  which  produces  vegetables,  fruits 


KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE  227 

and  sheep  in  such  abundance  as  Greece  can  hardly 
lack  seriously  for  food,  and  the  other  that  the  gran- 
aries of  the  country  were  well  stocked  with  reserves  of 
wheat.  As  these  reserves  dwindled,  however,  it  be- 
came evident  that  the  King's  passive  attitude  was 
chiefly  due  to  the  fact  that  he  was  anxious  to  be  al- 
lowed to  reap  the  Thessalian  corn  crop  undisturbed. 
Once  this  was  garnered  he  would  again  be  inde- 
pendent of  foreign  supplies  for  seven  or  eight  months 
and  could  begin  once  more  with  impunity  to  flout 
the  Allies.  By  that  time,  indeed,  with  the  turn  that 
things  were  taking  in  Russia  since  the  Revolution,  he 
might  hope  that  the  Germans  would  be  able  to  with- 
draw 100,000  men  from  that  front  and  send  them 
to  attack  us  in  the  Balkans,  which  would  give  him 
an  opportunity  for  co-operation.  The  French  Higher 
Command  at  Salonica  and  M.  Venizelos  both  urged 
upon  the  Allied  Governments  the  need  for  occupying 
Thessaly  and  seizing  the  corn-crop, — on  payment,  of 
course,  to  its  owners.  Not  only  was  this  a  measure  of 
self-defence,  but  we  needed  the  food.  The  islands 
which  had  adhered  to  Venizelos  were  indeed  very 
short  of  corn. 

At  the  beginning  of  May  the  occupation  of  Thes- 
saly was  decided  in  principle  by  the  Allied  Powers, 
but  there  followed  the  usual  period  of  hesitation  and 
delay  before  theory  was  transmuted  into  action,  and 
until  the  very  day  (June  10th)  when  the  telegram 
authorising  the  operation  reached  General  Sarrail 
from  Paris  it  was  always  doubtful  whether  we  should 
advance  southwards  or  not. 

Would  the  people  of  Thessaly  support  the  King  in 
opposing  our  occupation?  Venizelos  said  not,  and  he 


228         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

proved  to  be  right.  When  guaranteed  against  the 
royalist  reprisals  by  the  presence  of  Allied  troops,  he 
maintained  that  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Thessaly  would  adhere  to  his  cause. 

During  May  Sarrail  concentrated  troops  on  the 
frontiers  of  Old  Greece,  though  it  was  not  yet  sure 
that  he  would  be  allowed  to  use  them.  Four  regi- 
ments of  cavalry,  Chasseurs  d'Afrique  and  Spahis, 
moved  to  the  village  of  Servia  near  the  entrance  of  the 
Sarandaporon  pass.  A  Russian  brigade  was  at  Ver- 
rai.  Annamites,  Zouaves,  colonial  infantry  and 
other  regiments  were  gathered  at  Kozani.  The  En- 
tente Governments  had  decided  that  trouble  would  be 
less  likely  if  Greek  nationalist  troops  did  not  take 
part  in  the  operation.  But  half  a  battah'on  of  Eng- 
lish (East  Yorks  Regiment)  were  detailed  to  co- 
operate under  the  orders  of  General  Venel,  who  com- 
manded the  Division  Provisoire  which  had  been 
formed  for  the  purposes  of  this  operation.  The  share 
of  the  English  contingent  in  the  occupation  of  Thes- 
saly was  limited,  however,  to  coming  down  the  rail- 
way from  Ekaterini,  and  establishing  themselves  at 
Demirli,  a  mosquito-ridden  spot  on  the  plain  of  Phar- 
sala,  where  Caesar  beat  Pompey.  The  columns  which 
advanced  into  Thessaly  by  road  and  seized  the  chief 
towns  were  all  French,  and  the  principal  one  of  these 
I  accompanied,  being  indeed  the  only  Englishman 
who  had  that  opportunity. 

We  had  been  waiting  at  Servia  for  a  week  in  hot 
summer  weather — a  quaint  little  place  called  "  Ser- 
via "  because  some  Serbs  had  been  quartered  there 
in  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Heraclius.  That  is  one 
of  the  fascinating  things  about  the  Balkans;  roads 


KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE  229 

are  so  few  among  the  pathless  mountains  that  all  the 
countless  hosts  that  have  warred  here  since  time  began 
have  had  to  tread  exactly  in  each  other's  footsteps. 
Xerxes  and  his  invading  multitude,  or  part  of  it, 
doubtless  passed  up  this  very  valley  to  take  the  road 
we  are  expecting  to  move  along  any  moment  down  the 
Sarandaporon  pass.  Very  much  the  same  problems, 
too,  must  in  many  respects  have  exercised  the  minds 
of  those  old  warriors.  Where  is  the  next  spring  of 
good  water?  Is  the  mud  in  that  bottom  too  deep  for 
the  waggons  to  pass?  And  the  same  old  nuisances, 
too.  Alexander  the  Great's  legionaries  probably 
ejaculated  their  equivalent  for  "Damn  the  flies!" 
quite  a's  heartily  and  often  as  we  did  during  that  wait 
of  ten  days  at  Servia. 

I  never  ate  so  much  lamb  in  my  life  as  in  that  week. 
There  was  but  one  alleged  restaurant  in  Servia.  It 
formed  the  lower  story  of  the  ramshackle  "  town- 
hall,"  and  was  a  dismal  whitewashed  room  with  a 
grimy  kitchen  the  size  of  a  cupboard  opening  off  it. 
The  staff  consisted  of  an  old  Greek  with  that  grey, 
faded  look  that  never  washing  and  never  taking  the 
clothes  off  eventually  produces,  and  his  fat  little 
granddaughter,  Theodora,  who  could  actually  take 
an  order  in  French.  Not  that  this  required  a  large 
vocabulary,  for  the  only  dish  provided  by  the  restau- 
rant was  lamb.  Every  morning  one  sat  down  under 
the  great  plane  tree  on  the  terrace  of  beaten  earth 
that  looked  down  the  steep  and  rock-strewn  main 
street,  and  asked,  hoping  against  hope  for  a  change, 
"  Ti  echis,  Theodora?  M  And  Theodora,  disdaining 
to  speak  her  own  tongue  to  a  foreigner,  would  reel 
off,  in  a  tone  of  refreshing  novelty,  the  unvarying  pro- 


230        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

gramme,  ff Agneau  aux  feves,  agneau  aux  haricots, 
cotelettes  d' agneau,  foie  d' agneau,  agneau  roti"  So 
for  breakfast,  lunch  and  dinner  one  ate  lamb — lamb 
— lamb,  without  even  bread  to  relieve  its  monotony. 
I  fed  from  every  part  of  a  lamb's  anatomy  at  Servia 
except  the  trotters,  but  Theodora,  when  I  asked  for 
those,  seemed  to  think  I  was  trying  to  be  funny  and 
to  victimise  her  with  some  European  joke. 

"  It's  all  off.  We  shall  never  start.  How  could 
you  expect  the  Allies  to  come  to  a  decision  about  any- 
thing? "  So  grumbled  the  impatient  officers  of  the 
Spahis  and  Chasseurs  d'Afrique  as  they  sat  under 
the  plane-tree  in  the  evenings,  drinking  mastic,  and 
cursing  it,  the  Balkans,  the  delay,  and  the  tedium  of 
Servia  with  equal  fervour. 

And  then  suddenly  at  eleven  on  Sunday  morning, 
June  10th,  just  as  I  was  sitting  down  to  lunch  with 
a  colonel  of  Spahis  in  his  mess,  the  order  came. 
Lunch  was  bolted  in  a  flurry  of  final  preparation,  and 
at  3  P.M.  we  were  off, — a  seemingly  endless  column  of 
cavalry  with  a  battery  of  artillery  in  support,  and 
two  armoured  cars,  winding  along  the  road  at  the 
foot  of  the  mountains  that  led  to  the  Iron  Gates  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Sarandaporon  pass,  the  gateway  of  Old 
Greece.  Five  other  columns  besides  this  one  had 
started  simultaneously  on  their  march  from  different 
points  along  the  Greek  frontier.  In  all,  the  strength 
which  the  French  were  devoting  to  this  operation  was : 

A  "  provisional  division  "  of  infantry,  with  another 
division  in  reserve  at  Ekaterini ; 

Four  regiments  of  cavalry; 

A  proportionate  quantity  of  field  artillery  and 
some  6-inch  guns. 


KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE  231 

The  news  which  secret  service  agents  had  brought 
in  related  nothing  but  half-hearted  preparations  of 
opposition  on  the  part  of  the  Royalists.  Outposts  of 
Greek  gendarmes  had  been  watching  for  several  days 
past  for  signs  of  movement  on  our  part,  from  the 
heights  on  either  side  of  the  Sarandaporon  pass. 
Throughout  the  afternoon  and  all  that  night  the 
long  mounted  column  trekked  on.  It  passed  through 
the  wooded  Sarandaporon  gorge,  across  the  plateau 
at  the  southern  end  of  it  where  the  Greeks  defeated 
the  Turks  in  1912,  and  on  to  Elassona.  As  you 
looked  back  from  the  head  of  the  column  as  the  pro- 
cession set  out,  tier  above  tier,  on  the  zigzags  of  the 
descending  road  behind,  the  spectacle  that  you  saw 
was  one  of  the  old  warfare  that  has  disappeared  from 
Europe  for  ever.  These  picturesque  and  well-trained 
cavalrymen,  mounted  on  their  handsome  little  barbs, 
with  carbines  slung  across  the  back  and  sabre  thrust 
beneath  the  saddle-flap,  are  the  type  of  soldier  that 
was  once  the  pride  and  the  strength  of  armies.  Their 
dash  and  determination  in  attack  put  the  consumma- 
tion to  victory;  their  courage  and  self-sacrifice  pro- 
tected the  defeated  army  in  retreat.  And  now — they 
have  waited  in  idleness  and  tedium  for  months  before 
finding  even  this  second-class  employment  of  going  to 
occupy  some  cornfields  in  a  country  that  officially  at 
least  is  not  even  hostile. 

Elassona  we  reached  at  dawn,  a  picturesque  little 
place  nestling  against  the  hillside,  and  looking  across 
a  plain  yellow  with  the  fast-ripening  corn  that  we 
had  come  to  seize.  The  population  was  distinctly 
reserved  in  its  welcome,  but  showed  a  better  disposi- 
tion after  it  had  witnessed  with  visible  respect  the  ar- 


232         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

rival  of  the  guns.  Some  motor-lorries  accompanied 
the  infantry,  so  that  in  case  the  cavalry  advance 
guard  came  upon  a  prepared  position  of  defence  one 
battalion  could  be  rushed  up  quickly  to  attack  it. 

Resting  through  the  hot  day  at  Elassona,  we  left 
again  at  dusk,  and  from  the  ridge  of  the  Meluna  pass, 
one  of  the  points  where  opposition  had  been  thought 
likely,  we  could  see  shining  out  brilliantly  in  the 
blackness  of  the  plain  below  the  lights  of  Larissa, 
the  chief  goal  of  our  occupation.  The  night  was  pitch- 
dark,  except  where  the  acetylene  lamps  of  the 
armoured  motor-cars  flung  a  startling  glare  upon  the 
road.  We  paced  sleepily  and  slowly  on,  halting  some- 
times for  the  guns  to  pass  a  bad  bit  of  road,  and 
meeting  with  no  sign  of  life  upon  the  way.  Tyrnavo, 
the  only  town  upon  the  road,  passed  through  in  the 
small  hours  was  as  silent  as  if  it  had  been  deserted — 
not  a  dog  in  the  streets  and  no  one  even  at  his  window 
to  see  what  this  midnight  noise  of  trampling  hoofs 
and  jingling  bits  might  be. 

There  was  still  a  long  and  monotonous  ten  miles  to 
be  done  across  the  flat,  corn-waving  plain.  I  was  so 
sleepy  after  two  nights  on  the  march  that  I  nearly 
fell  out  of  the  saddle,  and  for  a  change  put  the  driver 
of  my  Ford  van,  which  was  following  behind,  onto 
my  horse,  and  took  his  place  in  the  car.  But  driving 
at  the  pace  a  cavalry  column  walks  proved  even 
worse.  I  nodded  over  the  wheel  as  we  crawled  along, 
and  the  man  who  can  sleep  on  a  Ford  car  on  a  Greek 
road  must  be  more  than  a  little  tired. 

Then  suddenly  I  noticed  something  which  banished 
my  sleepiness  immediately.  General  Venel,  com- 
manding the  whole  force,  drove  past  in  his  car,  stopped 


KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE  233 

at  the  head  of  the  column,  and  took  in  Colonel  de 
Fourtou,  the  officer  in  command  of  the  cavalry,  and 
then  he  drove  on  ahead  towards  Larissa. 

I  put  the  Ford  to  its  best  speed  and  followed,  and 
at  about  6  A.M.  we  arrived  at  the  bridge  across  the 
river  which  was  the  entrance  to  Larissa. 

There  in  the  open  road  was  waiting  a  small  throng 
of  which  the  central  figure  was  General  Bayeras,  the 
commander  of  the  Larissa  garrison.  General  Bay- 
gras  had  had  experience  of  this  sort  of  situation  be- 
fore, for  he  was  the  general  who,  on  orders  from 
Athens,  had  handed  over  Rupel  Fort  to  the  Bul- 
garians a  year  before.  He  looked  as  if  his  present 
position  pleased  him  even  less.  He  is  a  short-built 
man,  with  a  pointed  white  beard  and  an  expression  of 
petulance. 

The  French  and  the  Greek  officers  saluted  each 
other  frigidly.  General  Bayeras  began:  "I  have 
had  orders,"  he  said,  "  not  to  oppose  your  entry  to 
Larissa,  and  I  have  come  to  meet  you  to  consult  as  to 
what  arrangements  we  can  arrive  at  for  the  joint  occu- 
pation of  the  town  by  your  troops  and  mine." 

"  That  arrangement  would  be  quite  impossible," 
replied  General  Venel.  "  I  have  orders  to  occupy  the 
town  and  take  the  garrison  prisoners.  You,  mon 
General,  I  must  ask  to  consider  yourself  a  prisoner." 

This  ruffled  General  Bayeras.  He  got  back  into 
his  car, — a  big  limousine  of  German  make,  driven  on 
some  appalling  petrol  substitute,  for  the  importation 
of  petrol  itself  had  been  stopped  by  the  blockade,  and 
the  stocks  in  the  country  were  all  held  to  be  sold  at 
high  price  to  German  submarines.  There  the  Gen- 
eral sat  and  sulked  a  while. 


234         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

Then  suddenly  he  got  out  of  his  car,  spoke  a  few 
words  to  General  Venel,  and  was  into  it  again  and 
over  the  bridge  at  once,  with  Colonel  de  Fourtou  in 
General  Venel's  car  behind  him.  "  Follow  them," 
said  General  Venel  to  me,  and  accordingly  I  brought 
up  the  rear  of  this  little  procession,  which  passed 
through  streets  lined  with  uneasy  people,  their  shops 
close-shuttered  behind  them.  I  was  struck  by  the 
large  proportion  of  young  men  of  military  age  whom 
I  noticed,  not  only  then  but  throughout  the  day,  with 
apparently  nothing  to  do,  and  it  transpired  after- 
wards that  these  were,  as  suspicion  had  suggested, 
epistrates,  or  armed  reservists  in  plain  clothes,  whom 
the  royalist  Government  had  sent  up  to  Larissa  only 
a  day  or  two  before.  Their  rules  were  hidden  some- 
where, and  if  the  French  had  been  in  less  strength 
than  they  were,  these  ambiguous  individuals  would 
have  dropped  the  pose  of  peaceful  citizens  at  a  sim- 
ple order  and  joined  in  shooting  our  troops  down  as 
heartily  as  they  had  done  at  Athens  on  December  1st. 

When,  following  General  Bayeras'  car,  we  reached 
the  barracks,  we  found  proof  of  what  we  had  already 
suspected,  that  the  rapid  advance  of  the  French  column 
had  taken  the  Greek  garrison  by  surprise.  They  had 
not  reckoned  on  two  night-marches  running.  And 
so  we  came  upon  the  officers  of  the  barracks  in  full 
preparation  for  flight,  which  was  to  have  taken  place 
an  hour  later  so  as  to  escape  surrendering  to  the 
French.  Their  baggage, — shabby  trunks  like  the  piti- 
ful battered  boxes  of  a  little  maid-of -all-work, — were 
corded  and  waiting  for  the  cart.  The  officers  them- 
selves, in  full  field-kit,  with  swords  and  revolvers  on, 
were  gathered  in  front  of  their  mess.  About  a  hun- 


KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE  235 

dred  soldiers,  with  their  packs  already  on  their  backs 
and  rifles  in  hand,  were  drawn  up  to  one  side  under 
the  trees.  General  Bayeras  got  out  of  his  car  and 
spoke  a  few  sentences  to  the  officers  in  Greek.  Then 
he  got  back  into  the  car  and  drove  off,  with  a  French 
soldier  on  the  box  as  a  sign  of  his  captivity.  Colonel 
de  Fourtou,  who  had  been  charged  by  General  Venel 
with  taking  the  surrender  of  the  Greek  officers,  natu- 
rally supposed  that  all  was  now  arranged,  the  General 
having  admitted  that  Athens  ordered  no  resistance. 
The  Colonel  had  no  troops  with  him,  not  even  an 
escort;  he  accordingly  simply  told  his  interpreter  to 
invite  the  officers  to  come  into  the  principal  room  of 
the  mess-building  and  put  their  swords  on  the  table. 
The  Colonel  and  the  two  or  three  French  officers  with 
him  went  up  to  the  room, — a  bare,  shabby  place  deco- 
rated with  dreadful  frescoes  of  the  Bosphorus, — and 
waited.  There  was  a  chatter  of  excited  Greek  voices 
from  the  corridor,  but  no  one  followed  us  in.  (f  Eh 
bien"  said  the  Colonel  mildly,  "  I  am  waiting."  The 
interpreter  came  in.  "  Mon  Colonel,,  they  say  they 
won't  give  up  their  swords." 

"  I  am  not  here  to  discuss  it  with  them,"  replied 
Colonel  de  Fourtou.  "  I  have  orders  to  take  their  sur- 
render. If  they  won't  give  up  their  swords  I  shall 
go  away  and  it  is  war." 

This  phrase,  ff  Je  m'en  vais;  c'est  la  guerre"  be- 
came in  fact  a  sort  of  leitmotif  of  the  noisy  quarter 
of  an  hour  that  followed.  I  confess  I  was  surprised 
at  Colonel  de  Fourtou's  calm  and  self-control.  I 
had  expected  more  severity  and  less  consideration. 
Surrounded  by  excited,  shouting  Greek  officers,  led 
by  Colonel  Grivas,  gesticulating  with  the  absurd  ex- 


236        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

aggeration  which  only  a  Greek  can  attain,  he  never 
raised  his  voice  or  changed  his  manner.  "  Eh  bienf 
encore  dioc  minutes.  Apres  dix  minutes,  je  m'en 
vcds,  c'est  la  guerre" 

The  final  ten  minutes  ran  out  with  the  Greeks  still 
talking  at  the  top  of  their  voices,  and  Colonel  de 
Fourtou  was  already  walking  into  his  car  to  go  away, 
and  order  an  advance  in  force  against  the  barracks, 
when  the  reason  for  the  anxiety  of  the  Greek  officers 
to  prolong  the  palaver  became  suddenly  clear.  Cap- 
tain Bellenger,  Colonel  de  Fourtou's  staff-captain, 
rode  up, — a  soldierly  figure,  his  face  a  mask  of  white 
dust  after  the  night's  march.  ff  Mon  Colonel/'  he  ex- 
claimed, "  there's  a  whole  battalion  of  Evzones  escap- 
ing across  the  cornfields  at  the  back  of  the  barracks." 

The  scene  instantly  became  one  of  stir  and  military 
bustle.  "  Bring  up  the  Spahis,"  ordered  Colonel  de 
Fourtou,  and  Captain  Bellenger  pulled  his  horse 
round  and  rode  off  at  a  gallop  across  the  flat  grass 
drill-ground.  By  this  time  about  thirty  mounted  men 
had  already  reached  the  barracks  independently. 
"  Order  your  men  to  load  their  carbines,"  said  Colonel 
de  Fourtou  to  their  officer,  "  and  be  prepared  for 
whatever  may  happen.  I  will  send  you  more  men  in 
a  few  minutes." 

The  Greek  officers,  now  gathered  in  a  lowering  but 
rather  cowed  group  of  about  forty,  heard  the  rattle 
of  the  bolts  as  the  carbines  were  charged  and  watched 
the  despatch  at  full  speed  of  messengers,  one  to  Gen- 
eral Venel,  another  to  bring  up  the  armoured  cars. 

Then  came  one  of  the  finest  little  spectacles  I  have 
seen  in  the  whole  war.  In  front  of  the  barracks  lay 
a  perfectly  flat  stretch  of  grass  about  half-a-mile 


KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE  237 

long.  A  heavy  thudding  from  the  other  end  of  this 
Attracted  one's  attention,  and  there,  coming  at  full 
gallop,  were  the  Spahis,  the  French  Moroccan  cav- 
alry, with  drawn  swords  flashing  and  their  little  Arab 
horses  scampering  like  animals  possessed.  The 
swarthy-faced  soldiers  had  drawn  out  their  long  black 
locks  of  hair  from  under  their  turbans,  a  thing  they 
only  do  when  fighting  is  on  hand.  The  wild  throbbing 
of  the  hoof -beats  seemed  to  set  the  ground  quivering ; 
who  could  stand  against  such  troops  upon  the  charge? 
Alas  for  vanished  days  when  picturesqueness  and  effi- 
ciency could  be  combined  in  war — a  couple  of  dumpy 
Lewis  guns  would  make  a  mouthful  of  that  oncoming 
cloud  of  horsemen. 

The  regiment  swerved  into  the  drive  and  reined  up 
with  a  scattering  of  gravel  like  shingle  drawn  by  a 
wave.  "  A  battalion  of  Evzones  is  escaping!  "  shouted 
Colonel  de  Fourtou  to  Colonel  Duperthuis.  ff  Ou 
sont-ils?"  replied  the  Spahi  colonel  eagerly.  De 
Fourtou  pointed  down  one  of  the  avenues  between 
the  scattered  buildings  of  the  barracks,  and  the  Spahis 
were  off  again  like  a  mad  hunting-field.  The  Chas- 
seurs d'Afrique,  a  crack  cavalry  regiment  of  French- 
men only,  followed  them  immediately. 

They  had  not  been  gone  three  minutes  when  the 
firing  started.  Rifle  shots  rattled  out  irregularly  at 
the  other  end  of  the  barracks,  and  a  few  bullets  flew 
past  us  where  we  stood  face  to  face  with  the  Greek 
officers  whose  troops  and  ours  were  fighting  each  other 
only  two  or  three  hundred  yards  away.  The  situa- 
tion was  rather  odd.  There  were  about  forty  of  them 
all  fully  armed  and  about  a  hundred  of  their  men  with 
rifles  and  bayonets  behind  them.  Our  group  con- 


238        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

sisted  only  of  five  or  six  French  officers  with  some 
troopers.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  French  infantry 
had  necessarily  been  left  so  far  behind  by  the  forced 
march  of  the  cavalry  that  if  the  Greek  garrison  had 
stood  its  ground  it  would  not  have  been  greatly  out- 
numbered for  some  hours  to  come.  At  any  rate,  the 
chance  of  Colonel  de  Fourtou  and  his  staff  being  sud- 
denly fired  on  where  they  stood  seemed  so  likely  that 
I  turned  to  tell  my  young  English  driver  to  take  the 
car  out  of  the  danger  area.  He  was  only  consoled  for 
leaving  the  neighbourhood  of  the  skirmish  by  the  fact 
of  a  French  officer  demanding  his  aid  to  go  and  fetch 
the  armoured  motor-cars  which  were  delayed  through 
some  misdirection,  and  he  drove  off,  at  the  full  speed 
a  Ford  can  achieve,  with  a  Frenchman  sitting  with 
a  drawn  revolver  at  his  side,  in  case  the  Greek  re- 
servists in  the  town  should  have  taken  the  firing  as  a 
signal  to  sfart  operations. 

The  armoured  cars  made  a  visible  impression  on  the 
Greek  officers  when  they  at  last  lumbered  through 
the  barracks;  and  soon  their  machine-guns  could  be 
heard  at  work,  though  at  a  greater  distance  than  the 
earlier  shooting,  upon  the  fleeing  Evzones. 

Meanwhile  an  energetic  French  major  had  dis- 
armed the  Greek  soldiers  in  front  of  us  by  shouting  in 
an  imperative  manner  and  knocking  the  rifles  out  of 
the  hands  of  any  who  hesitated  to  obey. 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  we  noticed  that'  two  of 
the  Greek  officers  who  had  been  most  prominent  dur- 
ing the  palaver  about  surrender,  which  had  been 
interrupted  by  the  discovery  of  the  treacherous  with- 
drawal of  the  troops,  were  missing.  And  it  was  not 
long  before  one  of  them,  Colonel  Grivas,  was  brought 


KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE  239 

in  a  prisoner.  He  had  slipped  away  from  the  rest, 
had  had  his  horse  saddled  and  gone  to  join  the  troops 
who  were  fighting  our  men ;  he  had  even  fired  on  the 
Spahis  when  they  arrested  him.  Colonel  de  Fourtou 
told  him  that  he  could  not  understand  how  an  officer 
could  dishonourably  start  fighting  in  the  middle  of  a 
peaceful  parley,  and  sent  him  to  the  cells.  Colonel 
Frangas,  another  fire-eater,  was  captured  later. 

All  this  time  little  bands  of  rounded-up  Evzones 
and  men  of  the  other  regiment  of  the  garrison  were 
being  brought  in,  together  with  news  of  the  French 
losses.  Two  French  officers  were  killed  and  a  third 
died  later.  Seven  or  eight  men  had  been  killed  and 
three  officers  and  twenty-five  men  were  wounded. 

This  fighting  all  took  place  among  the  standing 
corn  which  spreads  into  the  far  distance  without  a 
break  over  the  flat  plain  behind  the  barracks.  The 
armoured  cars  following  the  tracks  through  the  corn 
chased  the  fugitives  for  six  miles.  Going  after  them 
the  same  way  one  saw  the  Spahis  strung  out  in  a 
long  line,  beating  for  hidden  Evzones  through  the 
wheat,  which  bent  before  their  horses'  breasts  in  yel- 
low waves.  For  it  was  by  lying  ambushed  in  the  corn 
that  the  Evzones  caused  most  of  the  French  losses. 
The  cunning  and  deliberation  of  their  action  appeared 
in  the  incident  of  the  tumulus,  where  the  Spahis  lost 
two  officers  killed.  A  little  way  back  from  the  bar- 
racks is  a  small  mound  about  twelve  feet  high,  rising 
out  of  the  corn.  On  top  of  it  an  insignificant  little 
practice  trench  had  been  dug,  some  three  feet  deep. 
When  they  found  that  the  French  were  after  them, 
some  of  the  Evzones  put  their  tasselled  caps  on  the 
parapet  of  this  trench  and  then  lay  down  in  the  thick 


240        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

corn  all  round.  A  party  of  Spahis  drew  near  and 
seeing  the  caps,  as  it  were  of  men  standing  in  the 
trench,  rode  at  the  mound  full  gallop.  The  Evzones 
held  their  fire  until  they  were  only  ten  yards  away, 
then  let  fly  a  volley  from  their  ambush,  but  I  do  not 
think  that  any  of  the  Greeks  remained  alive  more 
than  a  few  minutes  after  their  feat. 

This  was  the  only  opposition  to  the  French  occupa- 
tion of  Thessaly.  Nor  was  it  vested  with  any  re- 
prisals by  the  French.  The  population  of  Larissa 
fully  expected  to  see  at  least  Colonel  Grivas  and 
Colonel  Frangas  shot  in  the  town  square.  But  noth- 
ing worse  happened  to  them  or  to  any  of  their  officers 
than  the  descent  to  Salonica  as  prisoners. 

Volo  was  the  next  town  of  Thessaly  to  be  occupied. 
It  had  been  a  centre  of  the  business  of  supplying  sub- 
marines, from  which  its  inhabitants  had  drawn  great 
profits.  German  submarines  had  been  so  much  at 
home  there  that  they  used  to  come  into  the  port  and 
the  officers  would  come  ashore  for  lunch. 

A  public  meeting  had  been  held  at  Volo  on  our 
approach  to  advocate  resistance  to  the  Allies.  Re- 
servists had  been  brought  into  the  town.  There  were 
concealed  stocks  of  arms,  even,  it  was  said  of 
machine-guns.  So  that  preparations  were  made  by 
the  French  for  a  concentration  at  Velestino,  five 
miles  away,  before  undertaking  the  advance  on  the 
town,  and  the  armoured  cars,  always  a  powerful  moral 
factor,  set  out  from  Larissa  to  assist. 

There  is  a  road  marked  as  "  good  "  on  the  maps 
across  that  thirty  miles  of  almost  unbroken  corn- 
field from  Larissa  to  Volo,  but  actually  it  is  a  rough, 
unmetalled  track.  There  had  been  a  heavy  thunder- 


KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE  241 

storm  before  the  armoured  cars  started  in  the  eve- 
ning and  they  stuck  in  the  mud.  I  left  them  behind 
and  went  on,  but  my  own  headlights  failed,  I  lost 
the  track  and  had  to  spend  the  night  where  I  was,  so 
that  it  was  not  until  eight  o'clock  next  morning  that 
I  reached  Volo,  the  time  set  for  the  French  troops  to 
arrive  there.  I  found,  however,  that  the  Commandant 
of  the  battalion  which  formed  the  first  contingent  of 
the  French  force  had  entered  the  town  the  after- 
noon before  without  waiting  for  reinforcements  to 
join  him,  and  French  pickets  were  already  estab- 
lished at  the  entrance  of  the  town. 

The  volte-face  made  by  the  townspeople  of  Volo 
in  their  attitude  towards  the  Allies  was  characteristic 
of  the  quick-change  of  political  opinions  that  occurred 
throughout  Thessaly.  In  one  and  the  same  week 
there  was  on  June  12th  a  meeting  to  denounce  the 
Allies  and  support  King  Constantine,  and  then  on 
the  15th, — the  French  having  occupied  Volo  on  the 
13th, — there  was  a  meeting  to  denounce  King  Con- 
stantine and  support  the  Allies,  some  of  the  pro- 
moters on  the  platform  being  identical  at  the  two 
meetings. 

French  flags  appeared  on  every  side  in  Volo  imme- 
diately after  the  occupation.  Failing  other  emblems 
of  the  Entente,  a  tobacconist  on  the  sea-front  pla- 
carded his  shop-window  with  coloured  portraits  of  Sir 
Douglas  Haig,  General  Smuts  and  Sir  John  Jellicoe, 
cut  from  a  stray  English  magazine.  The  local  paper 
which  had  been  denouncing  the  occupation  of  Thes- 
saly a  few  days  before,  now  called  upon  the  popula- 
tion to  join  in  celebrating  its  "liberation  from  the 
tyranny  of  the  King."  A  stranger  to  the  Greek  tern- 


242        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

perament  might  indeed  have  been  astonished  that  a 
town  apparently  hostile  to  King  Constantine  should 
have  remained  so  long  in  his  full  allegiance.  Those 
citizens  whose  antecedents  were  too  compromising  for 
this  deathbed  conversion  had  fled  for  refuge  into  the 
rocky  peninsula  which  forms  the  north  side  of  the 
Gulf  of  Volo,  paying  as  much  as  £10  for  a  cart  to 
take  them  there. 

The  policy  of  the  iron  hand  in  the  velvet  glove  was 
meanwhile  adroitly  applied  by  the  French  in  Volo. 
While  the  regimental  band  gave  concerts  on  the 
promenade  in  the  afternoon  a  proclamation  indicat- 
ing fourteen  distinct  ways  in  which  the  inhabitants 
might  get  themselves  shot  through  resistance  to  the 
French,  appeared  on  the  walls  of  the  town. 

That  the  expressed  hostility  of  the  people  of  Volo 
for  the  Allies  never  materialised  before  the  French 
arrived  into  physical  violence  against  the  two  English 
households  and  the  few  Frenchmen  who  were  the  only 
representatives  of  the  Entente  in  the  town  is  due  in 
great  part  to  what  may  be  called  the  "  hypnotic  naval 
treatment "  applied  by  the  R.N.R.  captain  of  an 
armed  auxiliary  which  anchored  in  the  port  just  as 
feelings  were  beginning  to  run  high. 

He  was  advised  in  a  rather  apprehensive  manner 
by  the  French  consul  that  an  anti-Ally  demonstra- 
tion was  about  to  be  held  on  the  sea-front,  and  asked 
if  he  could  not  have  a  "  landing-party  "  ready  to  pro- 
tect the  lives  of  the  subjects  .of  the  Entente,  if  neces- 
sary. The  small  ship's  company  was  not  strong 
enough  for  enterprises  of  the  magnitude  of  landing- 
parties  to  be  undertaken,  but  the  captain  asked 
exactly  where  on  the  quay  the  meeting  would  take 


KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE  243 

place.  It  was  to  be  held  after  dark,  for  in  Volo  every 
one  sleeps  all  the  hot  afternoon,  and  the  evening  is 
the  liveliest  time  of  the  day.  So  about  10  P.M.  the 
anti-Ally  demonstration  was  in  full  swing.  Excited, 
stubbly  chinned  Royalists  had  begun  one  after  another 
to  address  the  crowd.  Who  were  these  dastardly 
aliens  who  were  violating  the  territory  of  Greece? 
they  asked.  "  Remember  the  glorious  victories  of  the 
Balkan  wars.  Remember  how  these  same  foreigners 
were  drugged  at  Athens  on  December  1st.  Zito,  King 
Constantine !  Curse  Venizelos !  Down  with  the  dogs 
of  Allies ! "  The  submarine  caterers  and  govern- 
ment-paid roughs,  fortified  by  a  series  of  glasses  of 
raki,  were  full  of  sound  and  fury,  when,  as  suddenly 
as  a  blow,  there  shot  out  of  the  velvety  blackness  of 
the  ^Bgean  night  a  dazzling  white  beam  of  illumi- 
nation which  fell  full  upon  the  meeting, — and  stayed 
there  without  flickering.  It  came  from  the  search- 
light of  the  English  ship,  and  its  unwavering  stare 
seemed  to  be  looking  into  the  face  of  every  man  of 
them  as  if  to  see  who  would  speak  next.  But  words 
died  away  on  their  lips.  The  unique  spectacle  was 
witnessed  of  a  crowd  of  Greeks  all  silent.  The  die- 
hards  who  had  been  most  vociferous  a  moment  before 
found  a  strange  difficulty  in  uttering  more  curses ;  the 
worst  desperado  of  a  royalist  last-ditcher  ceased  to 
advocate  armed  resistance  to  the  Allies  and  fixed  his 
disturbed  gaze  on  the  persistent  shaft  of  light  that 
from  its  unseen  source  held  them  like  an  apparition 
from  the  next  world.  They  simply  could  not  talk 
with  that  thing  staring  at  them.  They  fidgeted  and 
smiled  uneasily  and  whispered  to  each  other  (as  if 
they  might  be  heard  as  well  as  seen),  and  then,  indi- 


244         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA1  ARMY 

vidually  and  inconspicuously,  they  slipped  away  into 
the  grateful  obscurity  of  the  surrounding  darkness. 

After  that,  the  searchlight  was  simply  master  of 
the  situation.  The  sea-front  of  Volo,  where  the  Allies 
had  been  so  often  eaten  up  in  the  mouths  of  royalist 
blow-hards,  became  as  deserted  as  the  promenade  of 
a  third-rate  watering-place  in  the  off  season.  Royal- 
ists whose  consciences  were  only  lightly  burdened  and 
those  who  could  not  go  without  their  evening  raki, 
did  indeed  assemble  decorously  the  following  evening 
at  the  tables  in  front  of  the  chief  cafe.  There  the 
searchlight  left  them  alone  at  first,  but  suddenly,  its 
suspicions  being  roused,  it  flashed  a  sudden  glance  at 
them.  Then  a  curious  but  significant  thing  happened. 
Nearly  all  the  Greeks  at  the  cafe,  including  the  fire- 
eating  Royalists  of  the  night  before,  rose  to  their  feet 
and  took  off  their  hats.  It  was  a  confession  of  defeat. 
The  searchlight  had  been  too  much  for  their  nerves; 
it  had  broken  their  morale,  and  in  saluting  that  little 
converted  Irish  excursion-steamer  they  were  uncover- 
ing to  the  watchful  determination  of  the  British  Navy, 
the  spirit  of  which  she  represented  just  as  fully  as 
any  super-dreadnought  in  the  North  Sea. 

Trikkala,  Karditsa  and  other  towns  in  the  Thes- 
saly  corn-area  were  occupied  by  French  troops  at  the 
same  time  as  Volo,  and  the  Italians  showed  especial 
energy  in  co-operating  with  this  movement,  carrying 
the  extension  of  their  sphere  of  military  influence  even 
to  Grevena  and  Janina. 

The  British  detachment, — 500  picked  men  of  the 
East  Yorkshire  Regiment, — who  had  come  from 
Doiran,  were  at  Demirli,  a  flat,  featureless,  mosquito- 
ridden  railway  junction  in  the  middle  of  the  monoto- 


KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE  245 

nous  cornland.  They  supplied  patrols  which  visited 
the  villages  around  in  conjunction  with  the  French 
Spahis,  to  show  the  peasants  that  infantry  as  well  as 
cavalry  was  available  for  the  suppression  of  any  re- 
sistance. 

Searches  for  arms  and  the  seizure  of  them  had  been 
going  on  since  the  first  entrance  into  Thessaly  and 
before  I  left  ten  days  later  30,000  weapons  of  all  sorts 
had  been  collected.  Such  a  motley  assortment  of 
shooting-irons  could  not  be  found  outside  a  museum. 
They  varied  from  long  Albanian  flintlock  guns  of  the 
eighteenth  century  to  modern  cavalry  carbines,  and 
from  horse-pistols  to  automatics. 

The  occupation  of  Thessaly  by  French  troops 
brought  to  an  end  some  other  Allied  activities  which 
had  been  going  on  there  inconspicuously  but  actively 
for  over  a  year.  The  story  of  them  is  more  like  the 
plot  of  an  American  crook  cinema-film  than  anything 
I  have  heard  in  the  war,  but  they  were  none  the  less 
most  valuable  to  our  cause,  and  not  unattended  by 
risk  to  the  officers  who  conducted  them. 

These  were  the  measures  by  which  we  countered 
the  German  Secret  Service  in  Greece  and  did  our 
best  to  suppress  the  supplying  of  petrol  to  enemy  sub- 
marines. The  military  officers  who  were  working 
against  the  Germans  in  Greece  met  them  with  their 
own  methods;  the  enemy  was  subtle  and  secret;  so 
were  we;  they  were  ruthless,  and  so,  when  occasion 
demanded,  we  did  not  hesitate  to  use  severity  too. 

One  of  the  principal  duties  of  these  Allied  officers 
was  to  stop  couriers  who  frequently  went,  or  tried 
to  go,  from  Athens  into  the  Bulgarian  lines,  taking 
spy  reports  and  information  of  all  kinds  useful  to  the 


246        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

enemy  which  had  been  collected  in  Greece.  These 
men,  disguised  as  peasants,  or  sometimes  peasants 
themselves,  would  travel  by  road  and  contrive  to  slip 
across  to  the  enemy  through  our  lines  by  little-known 
tracks  across  the  mountains  in  Albania. 

The  Germans  were  prepared  to  pay  big  money  to 
men  who  would  get  these  despatches  of  theirs  through. 
The  only  way  we  could  stop  the  system  was  by  mak- 
ing it  so  risky  a  business  that  no  one  could  be  found 
to  attempt  it.  A  French  officer  who  was  employed 
for  months  in  hunting  down  enemy  couriers  told  me 
that  the  price  offered  for  one  journey  rose  in  the  end 
to  £2,000, — part  paid  on  starting,  part  on  delivery 
of  the  despatches.  The  way  the  French  officers 
charged  with  preventing  this  information  from  reach- 
ing the  enemy  used  to  work  was  this.  They  had  a 
local  intelligence  service  of  their  own,  recruited 
chiefly  among  roadside  innkeepers.  These  men  would 
inform  the  Allied  officer  of  the  arrival  at  their  estab- 
lishments of  any  one  they  suspected  of  being  an 
enemy  courier.  :<  The  man  is  about  thirty ;  black  hair 
and  moustache;  five  feet  eight  inches  tall;  wearing  a 
European  brown  suit,  much  worn,  and  a  soft  hat; 
says  he  is  a  commercial  traveller  for  an  Athens  cut- 
lery business.  He  is  sharing  an  araba,  a  country 
travelling  carriage,  with  three  others.  It  is  drawn 
by  three  horses — two  bays  and  a  black.  They  will 
start  at  5  A.M.  to-morrow  along  the  road  for  Korytza." 

When  the  Allied  officer  got  such  a  report  as  this, 
he  secretly  collected  three  or  four  of  the  unofficial 
"  police  "  whom  he  had  in  his  pay.  These  fellows 
were  sometimes  Cretans  and  consequently  convinced 
Venezelists,  who  wanted  on  principle  to  work  for  the 


THE  REGION  OF  THE  ALLIED  ADVANCE  INTO 
SERBIA,  AUTUMN,  1915.  INSET:  THE  SCENE 
OF  THE  OPERATIONS  OF  THE  "X  DIVISION." 


KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE  247 

Allies;  sometimes  just  tough  customers  willing  to  do 
anything  for  money  for  any  one.  Our  man  would 
give  the  slow-moving  araba  time  to  get  well  out  into  a 
lonely  part  of  the  country  and  then  start  off  after  it 
with  his  men  in  a  Ford  car.  After  an  hour  or  so  along 
the  deserted  road  they  would  catch  sight  of  a  fully 
laden  carriage  crawling  along  ahead  at  a  slow  trot. 
The  car,  overtaking  it,  passed  without  even  slacken- 
ing speed,  but  as  it  drove  by  the  Allied  officer  had  a 
good  look. at  its  occupants.  Yes,  the  wanted  man 
was  there. 

The  Ford  passed  on  in  a  cloud  of  dust.  If  the 
enemy  courier  had  had  qualms  of  uneasiness  at  the 
unusual  sight  of  four  civilians  in  a  motor-car,  he 
was  reassured.  They  were  not  looking  for  him  any- 
way; all  was  well.  But  a  mile  or  so  further  on,  at 
a  turn  of  the  road,  those  same  four  men  with  drawn 
revolvers  would  spring  out  suddenly  from  behind 
the  rocks.  "Halt!  That  man  in  the  brown  suit 
get  out  with  all  his  luggage.  Now  the  rest  of  you 
drive  on  and  don't  try  to  come  back,  or  there'll  be 
trouble." 

The  companions  of  the  now  trembling  German 
agent  were  always  too  terrified  to  think  of  refusing 
obedience.  They  were  only  too  glad  to  save  their  own 
skins,  and  hurried  their  wretched  team  of  horses  on, 
leaving  him  in  our  hands. 

Once  or  twice  the  German  military  attache  in 
Athens  who  despatched  these  men  did  receive  an  inti- 
mation that  all  had  not  gone  well  with  them.  Each 
courier  carried  a  receipt  to  be  signed  by  the  enemy 
staff  officer  to  whom  he  should  deliver  his  despatches. 
That  receipt  occasionally  arrived  back  at  the  German 


248         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

Legation  in  Athens  signed  with  an  initial  and  the 
words  ff  officier  du  controle  allied 

And  no  less  romantic  work  was  being  done  at  the 
same  time  by  the  officers  of  the  British  patrol  boats 
which  were  trying  to  stop  the  supply  of  petrol  to 
German  submarines  by  Greek  fishermen.  Night 
after  night,  British  naval  officers,  who  let  their  beards 
grow  straggly  and  untrimmed  for  the  purpose,  would 
be  rowed  ashore  to  a  deserted  part  of  the  beach  in 
the  disguise  of  a  Greek  peasant,  and  with  an  inter- 
preter would  sit  about  in  native  coffee-houses  listen- 
ing for  stray  references  to  stores  of  petrol,  or  meet- 
ing agents  of  their  own  to  receive  reports.  They 
found  petrol  in  most  unlikely  places ;  more  often  their 
informers  would  take  them  to  hiding-places  where 
petrol  had  been.  Once  it  was  in  a  tiny  little  chapel  on 
a  lonely  hillside,  and  the  space  under  the  altar  smelt 
so  strongly  of  the  petrol  that  the  priest  had  been 
concealing  there  that  the  stock  could  only  have  been 
removed  an  hour  or  so  before. 

"  I  was  coming  back  one  day  from  a  hunt  among 
the  islands  after  a  submarine  that  had  been  reported," 
begins  a  story  of  one  of  the  captains  of  one  of  these 
patrol  ships,  "  when  I  caught  sight  of  a  motor-boat  a 
good  way  out  at  sea  making  for  the  Greek  shore.  I 
came  up  with  it  and  I  saw  that  in  it,  alone,  was  a 
man  whom  I  had  long  known  to  be  supplying  petrol 
to  the  Germans,  but  whom  I  had  never  been  able  to 
catch  in  the  act.  I  realised  at  once  what  he  had  been 
doing.  He  had  been  out  with  a  full  cargo  of  petrol 
to  meet  a  submarine  at  a  lonely  rendezvous,  and  he 
was  now  on  the  way  back.  The  thing  was  as  clear 
as  the  daylight,  but  what  proof  had  I  on  which  to 


KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE  249 

arrest  him?  He  probably  had  his  pockets  stuffed 
with  money  that  the  skipper  of  the  submarine  had 
paid  him,  but  it  would  be  Greek  money  and  would  not 
compromise  him.  If  I  arrested  him  without  full 
proof  I  should  only  get  my  hair  curled  and  the  scoun- 
drel would  probably  be  paid  compensation.  So  I  just 
steered  straight  for  him.  If  there  were  a  collision  and 
he  sank,  it  would  be  a  regrettable  accident  for  which 
I  should  take  full  responsibility — with  a  light  con- 
science when  I  remembered  all  the  poor  fellows  of 
ours  he  had  helped  to  drown  for  money.  He  saw  me 
coming  and  knew  what  I  was  after.  He  altered 
course  just  in  time  and  my  ship  shot  past,  with  the 
wash  rocking  him.  I  turned  and  chased  him  and  dur- 
ing the  next  half-an-hour  that  petrol  merchant  had 
more  excitement  than  in  all  his  life  before. 

"  I  was  faster  and  much  bigger,  but  this  little  open 
boat  could  of  course  turn  much  quicker.  It  was  like 
a  bull  chasing  a  mongrel.  We  made  full  speed  after 
him,  while  his  motor-boat  with  wide-open  throttle  did 
its  best  seven  knots  through  the  water  and  he  sat  there 
with  his  ugly  face  turning  white  over  his  shoulder  as 
he  took  terrified  glances  astern.  Just  as  my  bows 
were  on  top  of  him  he  would  put  his  helm  hard  over 
and  scurry  off  on  another  course  with  us  coming 
round  in  a  circle  after  him  and  closing  upon  him 
again.  It  took  him  thirty-five  minutes  to  get  back 
to  the  lonely  little  creek  where  he  kept  his  boat,  and 
he  had  enough  narrow  escapes  of  a  watery  end  in 
that  time  to  scare  him  out  of  the  petrol-running  busi- 
ness for  good.  I  never  heard  of  him  trying  to  sell 
another  single  tin  to  a  submarine." 

General  Sarrail  came  from  Salonica  to  visit  La- 


250        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

rissa  and  Volo  on  June  20th,  and  had  a  welcome  of 
apparently  thorough  cordiality.  At  Volo  4,000  peo- 
ple gathered  cheering  in  front  of  the  Town  Hall. 
Some  of  the  most  lovely  fruit  I  have  ever  seen  was 
offered  to  us  there,  brought  by  young  girls,  dressed  in 
white,  of  that  fleeting  and  exotic,  but  remarkable 
beauty  that  you  sometimes  find  in  Greece.  The  peo- 
ple's friendly  attitude  was  a  sign  of  the  success  of  the 
long-debated,  long-hesitated  operation  of  occupying 
Thessaly. 

Such  is  the  most  plain  and  straightforward  story  of 
our  relations  with  the  Greeks  and  the  occupation  of 
Thessaly  by  the  Allies.  What  secret  reasons  of  state 
or  what  varied  motives  may  have  controlled  the  de- 
velopment of  the  Allies'  action  in  all  these  matters, 
hastening  or  retarding  it,  I  have  not  discussed  here. 
I  know  that  in  Balkan  affairs  especially  an  obvious 
and  self-evident  reason  should  always  be  received  with 
doubt  as  the  primary  cause  of  any  event.  I  have 
heard  more  than  one  interpretation  of  the  course 
which  the  history  of  our  relation  with  the  Greeks 
actually  followed.  There  is  much,  indeed,  that  is 
mysterious  in  this  complicated  Balkan  situation 
which  has  resulted  in  a  vastly  expensive  Allied  force 
being  held  up  for  two  years  in  a  barren  region  at  the 
other  end  of  Europe  without  accomplishing  anything 
proportionate  towards  the  aims  of  the  war.  The  cryp- 
tic influence  of  the  Jew;  the  restraint  upon  strategy 
imposed  by  the  Parliamentary  politics  of  some  Allied 
countries;  the  alleged  existence  of  financial  aims  to 
be  gratified  in  Greece, — these  are  some  of  the  expla- 
nations, probable  and  improbable,  that  you  will  hear 
from  people  who  profess  to  be  acquainted  with  the 


KING  CONSTANTINE'S  ATTITUDE  251 

facts  of  the  situation.  One  could  not  with  propriety 
examine  into  these  motives  even  if  one  would,  and  my 
own  opinion  is  that  until  all  the  documents  now  held 
secret  in  different  countries,  Allied  and  the  enemy,  are 
revealed,  there  will  be  very  few  men  indeed  who  know 
the  inside  story  of  the  Allies'  doings  in  the  Balkans 
these  two  years  past.  And  meanwhile,  if  one  turns 
one's  back  upon  the  recondite,  the  simplest  explana- 
tion seems  to  fit  the  facts  as  well  as  any:  that  the 
Greek  king  was  hostile,  even  if  only  passively  hostile, 
to  us  for  the  reasons  I  have  given;  that  General  Sar- 
rail  believed,  and  had  sufficient  apparent  reason  for 
believing,  that  the  rear  of  his  army  was  in  danger 
from  the  Greeks;  and  that  the  province  of  Thessaly 
was  occupied  by  the  Allies  to  remove  this  danger. 
Other  motives  may  have  tended  to  confirm  the  choice 
of  the  course  which  was  acted  upon,  but  it  seems  to 
me  at  least  that  the  apparent  and  ostensible  reasons 
for  that  choice  were  enough  in  themselves. 

The  leading  factor  of  the  future  of  our  Balkan 
army  still  remains  a  moot  question.  Just  as  the  fail- 
ure of  the  Greeks  to  keep  their  treaty  pledges 
and  their  plighted  word  handicapped  and  limited 
the  Salonica  Expedition  at  its  beginning,  so  the 
tardy  atonement  of  the  Greek  nation  for  that  de- 
fection may  yet  advance  the  successful  end  of  the 
enterprise. 

The  value  to  the  Allied  cause  of  the  Greeks  as  sol- 
diers is  increased  by  two  facts :  First,  they  are  soldiers 
on  the  spot;  you  have  not  to  go  through  the  slow, 
costly  and  risky  process  of  shipping  them  out  there 
first.  Secondly,  as  regards  supplies,  they  can  to  a 
great  extent  be  fed  from  the  resources  of  their  own 


252         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

country,  since  they  are  abeady  living  on  those  re- 
sources as  civilians. 

As  fighting  material  they  are  not  at  all  bad.  The 
French  Staff  officers  attached  to  them,  who  do  not 
distribute  praise  lightly,  are  well  satisfied  with  the 
way  the  divisions  abeady  at  the  front  have  settled 
down.  Of  course,  they  have  much  to  learn,  like  all 
raw  troops  in  this  war.  Their  own  idea  that  the  Bal- 
kan campaigns  had  proved  them  warriors  by  instinct 
as  well  as  experience  brought  them  one  or  two  rude 
shocks  at  the  beginning. 

As  regards  personnel,  the  Greeks  naturally  lacked 
good  generals,  capable  of  commanding  such  a  cam- 
paign as  this.  There  are,  however,  some  thoroughly 
efficient  officers  of  high  regimental  and  staff  rank  who 
have  received  their  military  education  in  France  and 
Germany.  The  company  officers  and  N.C.O.'s  are 
full  of  goodwill,  but,  as  I  say,  untrained.  For  edu- 
cational purposes  each  Greek  regiment  when  it  goes 
up  to  the  front  is  for  a  time  linked  with  a  French  one. 

When  I  was  in  Thessaly  with  the  French  troops 
the  peasants  were  saying,  "  Rather  than  go  to  war  I 
would  take  refuge  in  the  mountains."  But  it  is  in 
the  character  of  the  Greek  to  accept  authority  with- 
out much  trouble  if  it  is  firmly  enforced,  and  M. 
Venizelos  will  probably  be  able  gradually  to  put  his 
army  into  the  field  on  condition  that  the  Allies  make 
up  the  defects  in  its  existing  equipment. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  GREAT  IMPEDIMENTS:  TRANS- 
PORT AND  FEVER 

IF  the  Allied  campaign  in  the  Balkans  has  met 
with  little  positive  success,  the  reason  chiefly  lies 
in  two  important  conditions,  the  prejudice  of 
which  weighs  much  more  heavily  on  us  than  upon  the 
enemy.  Both  as  regards  transport  and  as  regards 
fever  the  balance  of  advantage  has  always  been  with 
our  opponents,  thanks  to  the  physical  characteristics 
of  the  region  in  which  we  are  fighting. 

One  of  the  principal  factors  of  the  success  of  an 
army  in  the  field  is  obviously  the  ease  and  rapidity 
with  which  reinforcements,  war-material,  ammunition 
and  supplies  can  be  brought  up  to  the  fighting-line. 
And  in  calculating  this,  the  distance  of  the  battle- 
front  from  the  base,  in  the  ordinary  military  sense  of 
the  term,  is  of  much  less  importance  than  the  accessi- 
bility of  the  base  from  the  manufacturing  districts 
at  home  where  the  weapons  of  war  are  forged. 

In  this  respect  it  would  have  been  difficult  to  find 
another  theatre  of  war  in  the  world  where  the  advan- 
tages of  the  situation  were  more  completely  on  the 
side  of  our  enemies  than  is  the  case  in  the  Balkans. 
We  are  on  the  outside  of  the  circle  all  the  time.  Our 
source  of  supplies,  England,  and  our  area  of  opera- 
tions, Salonica,  are  both  on  the  circumference,  and  we 
have  to  come  round  a  great  arc,  2,000  miles  long,  from 

253 


254         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

one  to  the  other.  The  enemy's  supply-base,  the  manu- 
facturing districts  of  Germany,  is  at  the  centre  of  the 
circle,  and  he  has  only  got  to  bring  his  material  of  war 
down  the  straight,  short  line  of  a  radius  to  get  to 
the  same  battle-zone.  The  comparative  advantages 
and  drawbacks  of  inside  and  outside  lines  could  not  be 
illustrated  more  glaringly. 

The  Germans  load  up  a  railway-truck  with  shells 
in  an  Essen  factory-yard,  and  that  same  truck  travels 
in  perfect  security  over  the  best  railway-system  in 
Europe  without  breaking  bulk,  right  up  to  the  Bui- 
gar  railhead,  not  a  dozen  miles  behind  the  front  we 
are  fighting  them  on.  What  happens  to  a  truckload 
of  shells  that  we  send  out  from  Birmingham?  It 
travels  down  to  a  port  and  is  there  transferred  to  a 
ship.  Then  it  either  starts  on  a  3,000-mile  voyage 
by  way  of  Gibraltar,  with  a  good  chance  of  being  sent 
to  the  bottom  by  a  submarine  on  the  way,  or  it  is  taken 
over  to  a  French  port,  discharged,  and  loaded  again 
onto  a  truck,  which  crosses  France  to  another  port, 
where  it  is  once  more  put  on  board  ship  and  still  has  to 
face  the  danger  of  torpedoing  in  the  narrow  seas  of 
the  .ZEgean. 

In  case  of  need,  the  enemy  can  rush  a  whole  division 
of  reinforcements  with  all  its  equipment  out  to  the 
Balkan  front  from  Germany  in  six  days.  I  should 
think  it  would  take  us  three  weeks  at  least  to  put 
through  a  similar  process  on  our  side. 

The  consequence  of  this  has  been  that  we  have  sim- 
ply had  to  go  without  things  in  the  Balkans  which  we 
really  need  if  we  are  to  do  anything.  Heavy  artil- 
lery, tanks,  unlimited  gun  ammunition — such  things 
have  not  been  available  for  the  Balkans  hitherto, 


THE  GREAT  IMPEDIMENTS  255 

owing  to  the  long  and  exposed  transport  system,  with 
frequent  breakings  of  bulk,  which  was  the  only  way 
of  getting  them  out  there. 

I  have  made  frequent  references  throughout  this 
book  to  the  conditions  of  local  transport  in  the  Bal- 
kans. They  are  very  bad  indeed.  We  have  improved 
the  existing  railways  and  built  sidings  and  loops  and 
supplementary  lines;  we  have  immensely  increased 
the  number  of  main  roads  (two)  which  existed  in 
Macedonia  when  we  got  there,  and  have  raised  many 
others  to  a  standard  of  surface  and  gradient  which 
enables  them  to  carry  motor  traffic. 

But  still  the  problem  of  moving  supplies  and  ma- 
terial of  war  in  the  Balkans  is  very  great.  The  coun- 
try is  so  hilly  and  the  hills  are  so  impassable  with  their 
stony,  rocky  sides,  scored  with  deep  ravines  and  cov- 
ered with  impenetrable  scrub,  through  which  neither 
man  nor  horse  can  force  a  way  except  with  the 
greatest  labour.  To  feed  Luzista  on  the  Struma  from 
Likovan  on  the  Seres  road  over  tracks  that  have  been 
cut  along  the  side  of  these  hills  needs  five  echelons  of 
pack-transport. 

And,  however  much  you  work  at  your  roads,  how- 
ever many  Greek  labour-gangs,  stone-crushers,  spe- 
cial tip-up  stone-carrying  lorries,  and  steam-rollers 
you  may  accumulate  there, — when  you  use  one  single 
highway  as  fiercely  as  we  use  the  Seres  road,  you  can't 
prevent  it  simply  crumbling  away  out  of  existence 
under  your  wheels  when  the  winter  rains  start  soak- 
ing it. 

With  the  muddy  season  you  have  to  increase  the 
number  of  your  lorries ;  this  in  turn  helps  on  the  dis- 
integration of  the  road.  Last  winter  we  had  motor- 


256        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

lorries  pounding  up  the  Seres  road  day  and  night,  to- 
gether with  ambulance-cars,  staff-cars  and  horse- 
limbers  innumerable.  The  result  was  that  the  road 
simply  disappeared.  Last  February  I  drove — or 
rather  bumped  and  crashed  wildly  over — long  sec- 
tions of  it  on  the  hill  above  Orliak  bridge,  where  it 
was  worn  into  holes  that  made  it  far  more  like  a  flight 
of  irregular  stairs  or  the  bed  of  a  mountain  cascade 
than  the  principal  supply-route  for  the  British  forces 
in  Macedonia.  They  told  me  that  my  Ford  probably 
wouldn't  be  able  to  get  down  the  hill;  certainly  it 
wouldn't  be  able  to  get  up,  the  only  motor-vehicle 
that  could  manage  that  road,  as  it  then  was,  being  a 
four-wheel-drive  tractor,  which  is  first-cousin  to  a 
tank.  Without  any  exaggeration,  there  were  stretches 
on  it  where,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  ditch  on  each 
side,  you  would  not  have  known  that  it  had  ever  been  a 
road  at  all.  You  would  have  thought  you  were  on  a 
bit  of  the  earth's  aboriginal  rough  surface. 

The  consequence  was  that  instead  of  supplies  be- 
ing taken  forty-five  miles  up  the  Seres  road  by  motor 
transport,  the  lorries  during  ten  whole  weeks  in 
January,  February  and  March  could  only  carry  them 
thirty-five.  Horse  transport  had  to  do  the  rest,  right 
up  to  the  front  line,  twenty  miles  on, — and  when  you 
think  how  many  limbers  it  needs  to  take  over  the  load 
of  one  lorry,  you  can  imagine  the  block  on  that  road. 
To  complicate  things  still  more,  there  were  many 
places  where  even  horse-transport  could  only  use  one- 
half  of  the  road  at  a  time,  the  other  half  having  been 
ground  up  into  a  treacly  pulp  of  mud.  It  must  have 
been  a  ghastly  experience  to  be  brought  down  from  the 
Struma  wounded,  in  an  ambulance-waggon,  last  win- 


THE  GREAT  IMPEDIMENTS  257 

ter.  It  was  exhausting  enough  to  do  the  journey  on 
the  front  seat  of  a  motor-lorry;  you  were  constantly 
thrown  so  high  in  the  air  by  the  bumps  that  your  head 
hit  the  roof  of  the  hood.  Fine  fellows  those  M.T. 
drivers  proved  themselves  to  be.  They  started  driv- 
ing at  four  in  the  morning ;  they  were  often  not  back 
in  Salonica  till  nine  o'clock  at  night.  Sometimes  they 
had  had  nothing  but  cold  bully  and  biscuit  all  that 
time.  Frequently  they  were  so  dead-beat  at  the  end 
of  their  run  that  they  had  to  be  lifted  off  their  seats. 
Long  after  dark  the  long  convoys  were  streaming  up 
and  down  the  endless  hills,  with  headlights  gleaming 
like  a  string  of  incandescent  pearls.  It  can  be  no 
comfortable  job  to  steer  a  three-ton  lorry  all  day  and 
half  the  night  over  such  a  surface,  and  that  there 
was  danger  in  it  was  not  unseldom  shown  by  the  sight 
of  a  lorry  upside  down  on  the  steep  slope  beside 
the  road,  its  driver  having  blundered  in  the  dark. 

The  supply  and  transport  service  of  an  army  is  one 
which  gets  little  public  appreciation  when  things  go 
well  and  is  the  first  to  be  objurgated  if  a  hitch  occurs, 
no  matter  whose  the  real  responsibility  may  be.  Cer- 
tainly in  Macedonia  it  is  the  most  important  branch  of 
our  whole  military  organization;  on  it  everything, 
literally,  depends.  And  it  has  fought  gamely  and 
with  a  great  measure  of  success  against  difficulties 
such  as  no  supply  system  of  any  modern  army  has 
ever  had  to  face  in  the  past, — difficulties  which  turned 
out  to  be  greater  even  than  was  anticipated. 

"  The  state  of  the  roads,  both  in  regard  to  sur- 
face and  gradients,  has  placed  a  great  strain  on  all 
motor-vehicles,  and  it  redounds  to  the  credit  of  all 
officers  concerned  with  the  administration  and  execu- 


258         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

tive  control  of  mechanical  transport  that  the  vehicles 
have  been  kept  in  a  state  to  undertake  the  journeys 
that  have  necessarily  been  performed." 

This  is  the  praise  accorded  to  the  S.  &  T.  branch  of 
the  Salonica  Army  by  the  Commander-in-Chief,  Gen- 
eral Milne,  in  his  despatch  of  December,  1916,  and 
when  that  was  written  the  M.T.  organisation  had  its 
time  of  greatest  strain  still  to  come. 

Particularly  responsible,  and  particularly  trying, 
has  been  the  work  of  keeping  the  motor-vehicles  on  the 
road.  Macedonia  plays  the  very  devil  with  cars  and 
lorries.  You  need  more  spare  parts  and  springs  in 
two  months  of  Balkan  motoring  than  you  could  find 
use  for  in  two  years'  driving  at  home.  And  the  repair 
situation  was  complicated  by  the  constant  possibility 
that  a  shipload  of  urgently  needed  spare-parts  might 
be  torpedoed  and  sunk  on  its  way  out  to  Salonica. 
But  the  Base  M.T.  depot, — under  the  command  of 
one  of  the  youngest  lieutenant-colonels  in  the  Army 
Service  Corps,  his  promotion  having  been  won  by 
merit  displayed  under  these  arduous  circumstances, — 
grappled  with  and  gradually  overcame  the  problem  of 
maintaining  in  being  a  mechanical  transport  serv- 
ice in  a  country  where  motor-vehicles  had  never  been 
thought  possible  before. 

The  Army  Corps  on  the  Struma  was  the  worst  off, 
because  it  had  no  railway  to  supply  it,  and  every  round 
of  ammunition,  every  bale  of  forage  and  every  tin  of 
bully  had  to  come  up  one  narrow  ribbon  of  road ;  but 
the  roads  in  the  sectors  of  our  Allies  in  the  Balkans 
were  just  as  bad.  I  shall  never  forget  that  patch  be- 
tween Vodena  and  Ostrovo  on  the  Monastir  road.  It 
was  only  a  hundred  yards  long,  but  for  some  reason 


OUR    POLYGLOT   ARMY    IN    THE    BALKANS. 

L.    TO    R.,    BACK    ROW ANNAMITE,    FRENCHMAN,    SENEGALESE, 

ENGLISHMAN,    RUSSIAN,    ITALIAN,    SERBIAN     (PARTLY    HIDDEN) 
IN     FRONT CRETAN,    BRITISH     INDIAN. 


THE  GREAT  IMPEDIMENTS  259 

it  was  left  unrepaired,  and  it  usually  took  one  hour 
or  two  to  get  over  it.  The  road  before  you  reached 
it,  and  after  you  passed  it,  was  not  so  bad.  "  It 
had  bottom,"  as  a  friend  of  mine,  well  versed 
in  Balkan  travelling,  would  say.  That  meant 
that  although  your  wheels  might  be  six  inches 
out  of  sight  in  liquid  mire,  below  that  there  was 
solid  ground,  perhaps  the  stone  foundation  of  an 
old  Turkish  road,  so  that  they  would  grip  and  you 
could  get  on.  Accordingly,  one  car  after  another, — 
there  are  not  many  cars  on  the  Monastir  road, — 
would  come  splashing  and  skidding  along,  seeing 
nothing  unusually  bad  ahead  and  would  charge  into 
this  slough  of  despond,  where  every  one  of  them 
would  stick  like  flies  on  a  fly-paper,  with  their  engines 
racing  just  as  unavailingly  as  a  fly  frantically  beats 
its  wings.  When  this  happened  to  your  own,  you 
would  get  out  of  the  car,  gingerly  insert  your  legs 
half-way  up  the  calf  into  the  mud,  and  examine  the 
situation.  The  Ford  would  be  up  to  the  axles  and 
lying  over  at  a  drunken  angle  to  one  side.  "  I  should 
try  backing  her,"  you  say  to  the  chauffeur.  He  backs 
her,  with  the  only  result  that  the  wheels  skid  round  at 
a  dizzy  speed  and  complete  your  personal  demoralisa- 
tion by  splattering  you  all  over  from  head  to  knees 
with  mud ;  from  the  knees  downward  you  were  under- 
mud  already. 

Then  you  look  around  for  Greeks,  or,  better  still, 
a  team  of  bullocks.  If  these  are  in  sight  all  is  yet 
well.  Every  sensible  car  carries  its  own  tow-rope; 
you  hitch  on  the  bullocks  or  the  Greeks  and  you  are 
extricated  at  the  cost  of  a  small  backsheesh.  But  if 
the  landscape  is  empty  you  must  take  the  sack  that 


260         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

the  spare  inner-tubes  are  kept  in  and  go  and  look  for 
stones.  You  stagger  back  with  these,  and  the  driver 
uses  them  to  build  for  each  wheel  an  individual  little 
causeway  to  run  on  out  of  the  mud.  After  this  he  lays 
a  foundation  of  particularly  big  stones  under  the  back 
axle,  puts  the  jack  on  that,  jacks  up  the  car  as  high 
as  he  can  get  it  and  then,  with  all  the  passengers  shov- 
ing, regardless  of  rank,  age  or  condition,  you  may 
struggle  out,  but  are  more  likely  to  skid  off  the 
laboriously  laid  causeways  and  have  to  start  all  over 
again.  I  once  had  to  wait  two  hours  till  reinforce- 
ments for  the  Italian  Army  came  marching  up  the 
road  and  I  could  get  the  help  of  five  of  them,  who 
were  not  employed  in  man-handling  their  own  mule- 
carts  through  the  morass,  to  lift  my  Ford  practically 
bodily  and  put  it  back  on  dry  ground. 

But  if  you  want  to  have  an  accurate  idea  of  what 
the  conditions  have  been  in  the  Balkans  with  regard 
to  the  provision  of  all  the  conveniences  of  transport 
and  existence  that  are  necessary  for  an  army  in  the 
field,  read  the  following  able  account  by  one  who  can 
speak  with  far  more  authority  than  I : — 

'  The  Force  in  the  Balkans  is  peculiar  in  one  great 
respect.  It  is  expected  to  hold  a  front  under  mod- 
ern conditions  with  communications  which  would  have 
been  considered  inadequate  in  the  Napoleonic  period. 
In  those  days  armies  operated  in  comparatively  com- 
pact masses  on  a  narrow  front.  Nowadays  the  re- 
verse is  the  case. 

'  The  extension  of  the  port  facilities  at  Salonica 
ind  the  rearrangement  of  roads  have  gone  on  almost 
imperceptibly,  each  extra  facility  being  added  as  it 
was  forced  on  the  armies  by  stress  of  circumstance. 


THE  GREAT  IMPEDIMENTS  26i 

"  As  they  stood  at  the  end  of  1915  the  town  and 
harbour  of  Salonica  constituted  a  defile  on  our  com- 
munications. The  streets  were  narrow  and  ill-paved, 
and  the  two  main  roads,  to  Seres  and  Monastir,  were 
reached  by  little  better  than  lanes  which  broke  up 
rapidly  under  the  traffic  and  necessitated  constant 
deviation. 

'  This  has  to  a  great  extent  been  remedied.  The 
approaches  to  the  port  were  taken  in  hand  and  vastly 
improved  by  the  French,  notably  by  the  cutting  of  the 
*  Avenue  de  la  Base,'  giving  direct  access  from  the 
Vardar  Gate,  known  locally  as  '  Piccadilly  Circus,' 
to  the  quays  and  the  main  road  along  the  front. 

'  The  French,  having  arrived  first,  availed  them- 
selves of  the  deep  water  west  of  the  quays  as  far  as  the 
Olympus  Brewery  to  make  small  floating  piers  to 
lands  their  stores  at. 

"  The  British  have  made  two  deep-water  piers, 
Pinto  Pier  and  Malta  Pier,  near  the  Standard  Oil 
Company's  depot,  and  two  shoal-water  piers,  Graves- 
end  Pier  and  Marsh  Pier,  to  the  extreme  west  of 
the  town. 

"  All  these  piers,  French  and  British,  are  now  con- 
nected by  direct  road  or  rail  with  the  main  depots  on 
the  Monastir  road  and  Seres  road,  and  enable  the  vast 
amount  of  stores  for  the  various  armies  to  be  landed 
and  handled  so  as  to  free  the  shipping  as  expeditiously 
as  possible. 

"  So  much  for  the  base  itself,  now  expanded  until 
it  covers  a  sector  of  a  circle  of  nearly  eight  miles' 
radius. 

'  There  were  two  main  roads,  and  two  only,  from 
this  base,  i.e.,  that  to  Monastir  on  the  west  and  that 


262         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

to  Seres  on  the  north.  The  area  between  these  two 
roads  is  rolling  or  mountainous,  and  quite  impassable 
to  heavy  traffic. 

;<  The  roads  themselves  were  of  light  construction, 
a  mere  skin  of  road-metal  laid  on  an  ill-drained 
foundation,  and  promptly  proceeded  to  break  up 
under  the  traffic  imposed  on  them.  During  the  first 
few  months  it  was  a  daily  occurrence  for  the  culverts 
on  these  roads  to  break  through.  Nothing  heavier 
than  a  slow-moving  ox-waggon  had  ever  been  over 
them,  and  the  pounding  of  three-ton  lorries  was  more 
than  they  could  stand. 

:<  The  work  of  keeping  these  two  roads  in  or- 
der was,  and  has  been  ever  since,  an  incessant 
duty  of  the  engineers  of  both  armies,  the  French 
on  the  Monastir  road  and  the  British  on  that  to 
Seres. 

;<  The  chief  difficulty  has  been  that  of  obtaining 
suitable  stone  in  large  enough  quantities  near  the 
roads  and  at  frequent  enough  intervals.  In  many 
cases  it  is  necessary  to  carry  stone  as  far  as  nine  or 
ten  miles.  Even  then  the  stone  is  not  sufficiently 
hard  to  stand  the  constant  grinding,  and  in  wet 
weather  a  few  days  suffice  to  reduce  sharp  broken 
stones  to  round  pebbles  which  make  consolidation 
impossible. 

"  Many  cross-country  tracks  have  been  made  pass- 
able for  horse-drawn  traffic.  But  the  main  roads  on 
which  lorry  traffic  is  possible  are  still  only  three, 
spreading  fanwise  and  diverging  as  they  go. 

"  Light  railways  have,  to  a  great  extent,  enabled  the 
country  off  the  Sarigol  and  Seres  roads  to  be  opened 
up,  and  constitute  important  lateral  communications 


THE  GREAT  IMPEDIMENTS  263 

in  a  country  otherwise  closed  to  all  but  light-wheeled 
or  pack  transport. 

"  There  are  other  difficulties.  The  local  labourer 
is  not  by  any  means  a  pattern  of  industry.  Centuries 
of  massacre  have  taught  him  to  avoid  the  semblance 
of  riches,  and  the  country  population  is,  in  conse- 
quence, the  result  of  the  survival  of  the  poorest, — in 
the  rich  soil  of  Macedonia,  the  laziest.  And  the  dif- 
ficulty of  obtaining  even  this  labour  is  not  decreased 
by  the  demands  of  the  army. 

"  Macedonia  is,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a 
desert.  Everything  has  to  be  imported.  In  the  be- 
ginning, Salonica  was  undoubtedly  the  Cinderella  of 
our  Mediterranean  efforts,  and  Salonica  had  largely 
to  subsist  on  what  could  be  spared  after  Gallipoli  and 
Egypt  had  been  satisfied.  With  the  increase  in  the 
force,  and  the  shifting  of  the  strategic  centre,  this 
drawback  has  disappeared,  but  there  is  still  a  long 
interval  between  the  time  stores  are  demanded  and 
that  of  their  receipt.  This  is,  of  course,  inevitable, 
as  it  is  often  impossible  to  foresee  requirements  until 
they  appear.  One  consequence  of  this  is  that  only 
works  of  the  simplest  description  have  been  carried 
out;  but  a  considerable  amount  of  latent  ingenuity 
has  been  brought  to  the  surface  by  force  of  circum- 
stances, and  improvisation  has  had  to  be  resorted  to 
in  a  marked  degree. 

"It  is  to  be  feared  that  a  somewhat  exaggerated 
opinion  of  the  resources  of  the  town  and  district  pre- 
vailed at  the  commencement  of  operations.  Tools  in 
particular  were  scarce,  and  this  alone  added  con- 
siderably to  the  difficulties  experienced. 

"  As  the  Force  grew  and  the  Base  expanded,  the 


264         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

supply  of  water  began  to  be  inadequate.  Surface 
wells,  while  good  as  regards  quantity,  were  bad  in 
quality,  and  recourse  was  had  to  artesian  boring. 
As  many  as  twenty-nine  wells  have  been  sunk,  and 
these  have  enabled  requirements  to  be  met.  At  the 
same  time,  advantage  was  taken  of  the  ancient  aque- 
ducts in  the  country  round,  which  constitute  a  net- 
work of  old  pipe-lines,  some  dry  and  others  running 
to  waste,  and  good  supplies  have  been  recovered 
from  sources  whose  origin  is  lost  in  antiquity.  The 
existence  of  these  lines,  often  crossing  one  another,  is 
a  curious  indication  of  the  unsettled  history  of  the 
country  in  times  past,  as  they  must  have  been  made 
in  times  of  considerable  prosperity  succeeding  periods 
of  trouble  during  which  the  records  of  their  precur- 
sors were  lost.  Incidentally,  the  reopening  of  these 
sources  of  water  has  been  of  value  in  dry  marshy 
tracts.  The  plains  of  Salonica  and  its  neighbourhood 
are  full  of  malaria,  and  the  steady  draining  and  dry- 
ing up  of  marshy  ground,  both  as  such  and  as  a  means 
of  obtaining  water,  cannot  but  have  a  beneficial  effect 
on  the  health  of  the  district.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
malaria  was  almost  non-existent  in  the  town  itself 
during  the  summer  of  1916,  and  according  to  the 
statements  of  inhabitants  was  much  reduced  in  the 
country  immediately  round  the  town." 

Among  the  most  prominent  institutions  of  Mace- 
donia is  that  horrible  little  creature  the  anopheles,  a 
mosquito  who  carries  the  malarial  infection  from  one 
man  to  another  and  may  be  known  by  the  facts 
that: 

1.  He  sits  up  in  a  hunchbacked  attitude  when  at 
rest; 


THE  GREAT  IMPEDIMENTS  265 

2.  He  does  not  make  a  singing  noise ; 

3.  He  usually  has  spotted  wings  (but  you  must 
catch  him  first  to  ascertain  this). 

4.  When  he  is  killed  he  lies  flat,  not  curled  up  like 
other  kinds. 

He  breeds  in,  and  lives  near,  swamps  or  stagnant 
water,  rests  all  day,  comes  out  at  sunset,  and  pro- 
ceeds to  make  a  meal  off  any  human  being  who  is 
handy.  If  one  of  his  victims  has  malarial  germs  in 
his  blood,  the  mosquito  transfers  them  to  the  blood  of 
the  next  person  he  bites. 

Macedonia  is  one  of  the  most  malarial  places  in  the 
world.  Hippocrates,  I  am  told,  wrote  a  treatise  on 
the  disease  as  he  had  observed  it  there,  and  distin- 
guished between  three  different  kinds.  It  kills  off 
large  numbers  of  the  natives,  and  not  one  of  them  but 
has  got  it  in  his  blood,  and  has  an  enlarged  spleen. 
That  is  why  they  are  so  sallow  and  unhealthy-looking. 
In  places  where  the  mosquitoes  have  become  particu- 
larly bad,  as  on  part  of  the  Struma,  where  the  river 
has  altered  its  course  and  left  swamps  that  provide  the 
mosquito  with  suitable  breeding-grounds,  you  will 
find  whole  villages  deserted,  evacuated  under  the  com- 
pulsion of  this  fragile  but  deadly  little  beast,  the 
anopheles. 

The  worst  of  malaria  is  that  once  you  get  it  you 
are  liable  to  go  on  having  it.  Men  who  were  first 
infected  last  summer  kept  on  going  sick  for  a  few 
days  with  the  same  thing  regularly  all  winter.  They 
call  them  recurrent  cases. 

Your  symptoms  are  a  high  temperature  combined 
with  a  chilly  feeling;  you  can't  stand  the  sight  of  food; 
you  probably  have  a  headache;  you  tremble  all  over. 


266        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

and  you  simply  have  to  go  to  bed  and  shiver  and  sweat 
alternately  until  the  attack  is  over.  This  sort  of 
thing  repeated  several  times  leaves  you  very  thin  and 
weak.  The  only  thing  to  do  is  to  take  quinine  regu- 
larly, about  five  grains  a  day,  when  you  are  exposed 
to  infection,  and  to  go  to  all  the  trouble  you  can  to 
stop  mosquitoes  from  getting  at  you.  Neither  of 
these  gives  perfect  security,  but  they  help.  In  the 
Salonica  hospital  they  used  intravenous  injections  of 
quinine. 

When  we  first  arrived  in  Salonica  at  the  beginning 
of  winter,  a  map  was  made  of  the  Base  area  with  all 
the  swamps  and  pools  of  water  marked.  These  were 
drained  by  Greek  labour  or  filled  in,  or  where  both 
those  methods  were  impossible,  they  were  sprayed 
with  paraffin.  The  result  of  this  has  been  that  round 
Salonica  itself  there  is  very  little  malaria  now,  but 
you  cannot  carry  out  those  processes  in  the  Struma 
valley,  which  has  ever  so  many  square  miles  of  swamps 
and  stagnant  water.  The  only  thing  to  do  there  is 
to  come  out  of  it  and  away  up  into  the  hills  in  the 
summer  where  there  are  no  mosquitoes.  That  is 
what  we  have  done  this  summer,  leaving  only  out- 
posts and  bridgeheads  to  hold  the  Struma  line.  And 
as  the  Bulgars  would  have  just  as  bad  a  time  as  we  if 
they  came  down  into  the  valley  in  force,  the  field  is 
more  or  less  left  to  the  mosquito  alone. 

But  malaria  is  by  no  means  the  whole  tale  of  the 
plagues  of  Macedonia.  There  are  dysentery  and 
diarrhoea,  both  very  weakening,  and  almost  unavoid- 
able, at  any  rate  to  a  mild  degree.  For  these  the 
flies  are  chiefly  responsible.  In  fact,  the  fly  is  prob- 
ably as  deadly  as  the  mosquito.  The  only  way  to 


THE  GREAT  IMPEDIMENTS  267 

keep  down  flies  is  to  see  that  they  get  nothing  to  feed 
on.  All  food  must  be  in  boxes  with  wooden  lids, 
which  are  kept  shut.  Nor  will  flies  go  where  it  is 
dark,  so  that  latrine  trenches  are  made  eight  feet 
deep. 

There  is  a  sort  of  local  heat-fever,  too,  in  Mace- 
donia which  is  very  trying.  It  lasts  four  days,  begins 
with  pains  in  the  neck  and  head,  and  causes  very  high 
temperatures,  up  to  106°  and  even  higher. 

Last  year  men  would  often  get  malaria  and  dysen- 
tery together,  and  then  they  had  little  chance.  This 
year,  thanks  to  the  greater  knowledge  which  has  come 
with  experience,  an  official  message  published  August 
llth  was  able  to  say:  "  Cases  of  malaria  are  slightly 
fewer  than  last  year.  Dysentery  and  diarrhoea  are 
appreciably  less  prevalent.  The  admission  rate  for 
fevers  other  than  malaria  shows  a  reduction  of  nearly 
four-fifths." 

On  the  figures  for  1916, — which,  of  course,  have 
since  changed  for  the  better, — Salonica's  rate  of  ad- 
missions to  hospital  for  sickness  was  nearly  two  and 
one-half  times  that  of  France,  but  only  one-third 
of  the  rate  in  Mesopotamia. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

PEOPLE,  PLACES  AND  THINGS  IN 
MACEDONIA 

MACEDONIA  is  a  country  of  big  horizons,  a 
bare  and  treeless  land  with  monotonous 
stretches  of  plain,  covered  with  thin  grass, 
and  ranges  of  hills  that  are  masses  of  evergreen  scrub. 
Its  most  characteristic  features  are  the  frequent  nul- 
lahs that  make  it  a  most  futile  thing  to  attempt  to 
cut  straight  across  what  looks  like  an  open  stretch  of 
country;  the  steep  and  narrow  little  ravines  are  not 
to  be  seen  until  you  are  right  upon  them,  and  if  you 
scramble  in  and  out  of  one  in  the  hope  that  it  may 
be  exceptional  you  only  find  that  you  have  let  your- 
self in  for  a  very  slow  and  laborious  journey. 

In  the  sector  that  our  troops  occupy  there  are  no 
mountain-positions  such  as  the  boulder-strewn  heights, 
with  their  fangs  and  pinnacles  of  sheer  rock,  where 
the  Serbs  and  Italians  have  been  fighting  in  the  loop 
of  the  Cerna  river  further  west ;  nor  anything  so  steep 
as  the  jagged  peaks  between  Ochrida  and  Prespa 
lakes  where  the  French  began  their  last  spring  offen* 
sive  with  a  fight  in  a  blinding  snowstorm.  "  Gibral- 
tar," a  sheer  and  naked  pyramid  of  rock,  rises  in 
the  middle  of  our  Army  area,  and  there  is  the  com- 
manding height  of  Mount  Hortiach  close  behind  Sa- 
lonica,  but  neither  of  these  has  called  for  occupation 
by  our  troops.  The  greatest  mountain  of  all  in  the 

268 


PEOPLE  AND  THINGS  IN  MACEDONIA        269 

whole  Allied  line  is  the  8,000-feet-high  Kaimak- 
chalan,  where  the  Serbs  fought  well  on  into  last  winter 
among  the  bitter  snow  and  above  the  damp  grey  mists 
that  veiled  it  from  our  eyes  below  like  the  scene  of  an 
Olympic  battle. 

Except  for  the  black  wall  of  the  Belashitza  moun- 
tains in  the  Bulgarians'  country  over  against  our 
lines,  there  is  nothing  that  can  be  called  grand  or  im- 
posing in  the  part  of  Macedonia  where  the  British 
Army  is  campaigning.  The  lack  of  trees  or  rocks  to 
break  the  monotony  of  the  rolling  plain,  the  rarity  of 
water,  make  of  it  a  landscape  of  which  you  soon  tire. 
I  cannot  imagine  any  one  now  belonging  to  the  Sa- 
lonica  Army  being  filled  with  yearning  in  years  to 
come  by  the  memory  of  its  natural  beauties.  Not  but 
what  there  is  much  there  that  is  picturesque.  I  myself 
have  a  view  above  all  preferred,  and  that  on  the  very 
outskirts  of  Salonica  itself.  I  hit  upon  it  quite  by 
accident  one  Sunday  in  the  winter.  I  had  been  out 
for  a  ride  with  a  paper-hunt  organised  by  officers  at 
the  Base  who  took  revenge  upon  their  sedentary  duties 
by  that  form  of  exercise  on  Sunday  afternoons,  and 
instead  of  returning  home  by  road  I  made  across  the 
hills  towards  the  old  citadel  of  Salonica  that  over- 
tops the  town  walls  at  their  highest  point  on  the 
landward  side.  For  a  time  the  rolling  slopes  around 
hid  all  sight  of  the  town,  and  then  suite  suddenly,  as 
you  came  over  a  rise,  there  rose  up  before  you  the 
long  line  of  the  mediaeval  wall,  with  bastion,  tower  and 
battlement  each  standing  out  in  silhouette  against  the 
sky.  The  empty  countryside  reached  to  its  very 
foot;  no  modern  building  clashed  with  the  complete- 
ness of  the  mediaeval  scene.  High  and  stern  and  solid, 


270         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

softened  by  no  sentimental  growth  of  ivy,  marred  by 
no  decay,  the  grey  stone  ramparts  faced  the  naked 
wilderness,  abruptly  marking  off  the  desert  from  the 
town,  standing  in  ample  defence  of  the  riches  of  the 
townspeople  within  against  the  greed  of  the  maraud- 
ing barbarian  without.  To  come  upon  such  a  scene  in 
the  rich  light  of  a  flaming  sunset,  and  to  approach  it 
by  so  archaic  a  manner  of  motion  as  on  the  back  of  a 
tired  horse,  was  to  swing  back  at  once  in  imagination 
through  several  centuries.  One  looked  at  the  grim 
towers  as  many  a  road-weary  traveller  must  have  seen 
them  with  the  relief  in  his  heart  of  once  more  behold- 
ing signs  of  the  civilisation  that  he  had  left  behind 
him  at  the  Danube.  That  glint  of  light  from  an 
embrasure  might  be  from  the  helmet  of  the  watchman 
of  the  gate,  and  the  distant  hooting  of  a  steamer  in  the 
port  sounded  to  the  fancy-haunted  ear  like  the  wind- 
ing of  his  horn. 

But  if  you  are  going  to  give  rein  to  your  imagina- 
tion, Macedonia  will  have  much  fascination  for  you. 
The  feet  of  many  of  the  world's  most  historic  figures 
have  trodden  the  dust  and  mud  of  this  bleak  land. 
Start  out  from  the  town  along  the  Monastir  road, 
past  main  supply  depots,  field-bakeries,  R.E.  parks 
and  through  a  never-ceasing  stream  of  motor-lorries, 
limbers,  ambulance-cars  and  dingy  Greek  labourers 
on  foot.  You  are  following  the  exact  line  of  the  old 
Roman  Egnatian  Way  that  led  from  Durazzo  on  the 
Adriatic  shore  to  Constantinople.  Pompey  travelled 
along  it  in  his  horse-litter ;  and  you  will  probably  meet 
an  English  general  going  precisely  the  same  way  in  a 
touring-car.  Fifteen  miles  out  from  Salonica,  where 
the  naked  untilled  plain  stretches  away  out  of  sight 


PEOPLE  AND  THINGS  IN  MACEDONIA         271 

all  round,  as  empty  as  the  prairie,  with  no  sign  of 
human  habitation,  you  will  come  suddenly  upon  a 
great  stone  fountain  by  the  side  of  the  road.  There 
is  no  fountain  in  London  so  big ;  it  is  even  larger  than 
the  Fountain  of  Trevi  in  Rome.  You  climb  up 
steps  to  the  side  of  a  cistern  big  enough  to  swim  in, 
and  there  are  basins  and  cascades  of  water  all  around. 
No  one  uses  that  fountain  now,  except  an  occasional 
Macedonian  peasant  watering  his  bullock-team  in  the 
middle  of  their  slow  day's  march,  but  once  it  was  the 
centre  of  a  big  city;  for  centuries,  perhaps,  people 
came  there  every  day  to  draw  their  water;  they  gos- 
sipped  round  it,  made  love  round  it,  fought  round  it. 
For  it  stood  in  the  market-place  of  the  capital  of 
Philip  of  Macedon,  and  only  a  little  further  off  you 
will  see  rising  incongruously  out  of  the  empty 
plain,  a  great  fragment  of  a  lofty  wall,  immensely 
thick,  which  once  formed  part  of  the  defences  of 
that  wealthy  city,  of  which  no  other  traces  but  these 
remain.  But  you  have  only  to  poke  about  among 
the  stones  and  you  will  pick  up  in  five  minutes  half-a- 
dozen  fragments  of  the  glazed  household  pottery  of 
two  thousand  years  ago,  and  you  will  notice  too  that 
what  look  like  shapeless  boulders  lying  about  are 
often  the  broken  and  weatherworn  fragments  of  the 
carved  capitals  of  marble  pillars.  Pella,  for  so  the 
place  is  marked  on  the  maps,  no  doubt  once  seemed 
to  whole  generations  of  people  as  permanent  and  im- 
mutable as  Piccadilly  Circus  does  to  Londoners. 
When  the  war  is  over  I  feel  inclined  to  buy  a  job 
lot  of  picks  and  shovels  and  carts,  which  like  many 
other  Army  implements  will  be  going  for  an  old  song 
in  Macedonia  then,  and  peg  out  an  excavating  claim 


272         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

on  the  site  of  Pella.  It  is  so  tantalising  when  your 
car  has  a  puncture  near  the  fountain  to  walk  about 
on  the  rough  grass  and  say  to  yourself,  "  Here,  where 
I  am  standing,  there  may  be  another  Venus  of  Milo 
or  a  Winged  Victory  a  bare  ten  feet  underground, 
while  there,  by  that  stone,  the  High  Priest  of  the  city 
buried  the  gold  vessels  of  the  temple  when  the  bar- 
barians swept  down."  When  you  think  of  all  the  bury- 
ing of  valuables  that  went  on  in  the  days  when  there 
were  no  banks  and  no  safe-deposits,  the  dingy  green 
grass  that  covers  Pella  begins  to  take  on  the  gleam  of 
an  Eldorado. 

It  was  in  the  company  of  General  Sarrail  that  I 
first  visited  the  site  of  the  vanished  city.  The  French 
Commander-in- Chief  seldom  has  time  for  an  excur- 
sion of  any  kind,  and  this  one  indeed  was  combined 
with  the  inspection  of  the  cavalry  outposts  that  were 
all  we  had  at  that  time  (February,  1916)  along  the 
Monastir  road.  I  got  the  invitation  overnight  from 
the  General's  son-in-law,  Captain  Bouet,  and  it 
brought  home  to  me  how  strenuously  Sarrail  takes 
even  his  rare  distractions.  '  The  General  would  be 
glad  if  you  would  accompany  him  on  an  excursion 
to-morrow  to  see  the  ruins  of  Pella.  Start  from 
Headquarters  at  5.45  A.M."  I  rose  at  5.15,  a  most 
unpleasant  hour  in  February.  Punctually  to  the 
stroke  of  a  quarter  to  six,  Sarrail  appeared  at  the 
door  of  the  Headquarters  building.  He  had  already 
been  through  the  reports  that  had  come  in  during  the 
night,  and  presumably  had  had  breakfast,  which  I 
had  not.  His  son-in-law  and  an  interpreter-officer 
made  up  the  party  of  four.  The  big  limousine  did  a 
quick  time  to  Pella.  There  is  one  basement  of  a 


PEOPLE  AND  THINGS  IN  MACEDONIA        273 

house  there  that  can  be  found  with  some  trouble, 
intact  and  open  to  the  air.  Some  archaeologists  dis- 
interred it  a  few  years  ago.  The  General  explored 
these  ruins  with  the  energy  of  a  boy.  He  had  ques- 
tion after  question  for  the  interpreter  officer,  who  in 
private  life  is  a  professor  of  archaeology  himself.  To 
find  a  fragment  of  a  broken  vase  delighted  him;  he 
was  full  of  jokes  about  the  statue  of  a  lady  which 
some  French  soldiers  had  unearthed ;  a  weasel,  scam- 
pering off  among  the  stones,  drew  from  him  a  vigor- 
ous view-halloa.  But  for  his  plain  khaki  uniform 
any  one  passing  would  have  seen  no  more  than  a  tall, 
vigorous,  white-haired  man  finding  unusual  zest  in  his 
country  walk ;  they  would  hardly  have  suspected  that 
on  those  shoulders  rested  the  responsibility  for  the 
most  complicated  campaign  in  which  the  Allies  have 
engaged.  But  this  easy-going  mood  only  lasted  for 
half  an  hour,  about  as  much  time  as,  if  he  were  a 
smoker,  the  General  might  spend  over  an  early 
cigar, — and  it  was  not  yet  seven  in  the  morning.  By 
ten  minutes  past  Sarrail  was  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  again.  We  had  gone  on  to  the  Headquarters 
of  a  French  cavalry  regiment,  and  he  was  snapping 
out  his  swift  questions,  and  pouring  out  his  rapid 
flow  of  talk,  which  loses  nothing  in  vigour  and  inten- 
sity from  an  over-particular  choice  of  polite  language. 
Energy,  concentration,  ambition,  fearlessness,  an 
absolute  craving  for  responsibility  rather  than  the 
dread  of  it  which  afflicts  some  men  when  at  his  age 
of  sixty  they  have  found  themselves  loaded  with  the 
cares  and  the  risks  of  commanding  a  large  army  in 
the  field, — those  are  some  of  the  dominant  features 
of  the  personality  of  General  Sarrail.  He  radiates 


274         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

vitality;  he  is  always  keyed  up  to  concert  pitch.  By 
these  things  you  may  know  a  leader  of  men.  You 
must  add  to  this  a  remarkable  charm  of  manner, 
which  is  by  no  means  all  due  to  the  fact  that  he  is  one 
of  the  handsomest  men  in  the  army  he  commands. 
He  is  a  tall  man,  over  six  feet  high,  and  his  height 
would  be  even  more  noticeable  were  it  not  for  a  stoop 
of  the  shoulders  which  has  come  to  him  through  years 
of  concentration  as  a  military  student,  but  which  yet 
accords  well  with  an  air  of  refinement  and  intellectu- 
ality that  is  in  his  bearing.  His  face  is  one  of  unusual 
distinction,  clear-cut  and  aquiline,  and  his  high  fore- 
head rises  to  fine,  wayward  hair  of  that  radiant  white- 
ness which  is  an  adornment  rather  than  a  disfigure- 
ment of  age.  His  grey  eyes  are  alert  and  full  of 
expression, — humorous  if  he  is  not  crossed,  glittering 
with  fierceness  if  he  is  roused.  For  General  Sarrail 
has  a  temper  that  is  not  slow  of  kindling.  '  They  say 
I  am  impetuous,"  he  said  once  to  a  friend  of  mine 
who  knows  him  well.  "  I  am ;  I  admit  it.  I  am 
patient  as  long  as  I  can  be,  but — gare  le  jour  ou  la 
moutarde  me  monte  au  nez! " 

There  are  few  generals  in  the  Allied  service  who 
have  been  set  a  harder  task  than  Sarrail.  For  one 
thing,  he  commands  a  more  heterogeneous  army  than 
has  been  gathered  together  since  the  Crusades.  Each 
of  the  Allied  contingents  under  his  leadership  has  a 
different  language,  different  methods,  different  tradi- 
tions, different  prejudices.  They  all  of  them  want  to 
win  the  war,  but  among  people  of  such  varied  char- 
acter and  temperament  it  is  easy  to  see  how  di- 
vergences of  opinion  may  arise  as  to  which  is  the  best 
way  to  do  it.  There  never  was  yet  a  football  team  of 


PEOPLE  AND  THINGS  IN  MACEDONIA         275 

eleven  men  in  which  criticisms  and  even  squabbles  did 
not  arise,  and  when  you  have  nearer  half  a  million 
people  of  six  distinct  nationalities  to  deal  with  the 
same  thing  will  happen.  Even  the  Allied  Govern- 
ments need  to  be  constantly  meeting  in  council  so  that 
they  may  "  bring  their  views  into  harmony,"  but  at 
Salonica,  which  is  a  microcosm  of  the  Allies,  there  is 
nothing  to  keep  our  different  military  contingents 
working  together  in  a  loyal  and  co-ordinated  effort 
except  the  personality  and  the  authority  of  General 
Sarrail.  He  has  had  to  hold  his  team  together  as  well 
as  to  fight  the  enemy,  and  for  nearly  two  years  he  has 
carried  that  task  through  with  courage,  energy  and 
success. 

And,  furthermore,  Sarrail  has  been  all  the  time  in 
the  difficult  position  of  a  workman  who  is  called  upon 
to  make  bricks  without  straw.  The  Western  front 
has  had  the  first  call  upon  men  and  material  of  war. 
Commanders  there  have  had  personal  access  to  the 
Allied  General  Staffs  to  explain  and  urge  their  plans, 
while  Sarrail  has  been  in  charge  of  a  campaign  which 
is  liable  both  to  suffer  from  divergences  of  view 
among  the  Allies  and  to  fall  into  the  background 
through  its  own  remoteness.  It  is  easy,  when  full 
success  fails  to  crown  an  enterprise,  to  lay  the  blame 
upon  the  man  responsible  for  conducting  it  on  the 
spot,  but  in  this  case,  given  the  inadequate  numbers 
of  the  Balkan  Army,  and  the  unusual  difficulties  of 
the  country  it  is  fighting  in,  who  can  say  that  another 
general  would  have  accomplished  more? 

The  same  lack  of  full  comprehension  that  has  in- 
spired criticisms  of  our  generals  in  the  Balkans  has 
led  to  the  development  of  the  idea  that  Salonica  is  a 


276        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

"  picnic  "  for  the  men.  If  it  were,  one  can  only  say 
that  people  out  there  keep  extraordinarily  quiet  about 
the  good  time  they  are  supposed  to  be  having,  and 
show  praiseworthy  self-sacrifice  in  trying  to  get  away 
from  it  and  back  to  the  Western  front.  But  the 
idea  that  the  soldier  lives  an  easy  and  safe  life  in 
Macedonia  is  absurdly  false.  He  works  as  hard  as  a 
human  being  can  all  the  time,  whether  he  is  in  the 
line  or  out.  When  he  comes  out  it  is  not  to  go  into 
the  relative  rest  of  billets,  as  in  France.  He  is 
brought  back  a  few  hundred  yards  and  sets  up  his 
bivouac  shelter-tent,  which  is  all  he  has  as  protection 
both  against  summer  sun  and  winter  snow,  and  digs, 
digs,  digs  eternally.  There  is  very  little  leave  for 
the  soldier  in  the  Balkans.  There  are  battalions 
which  have  been  in  the  front  line  for  seven  months 
without  relief,  and  when  you  consider  that  our 
trenches  are  shelled  every  day  and  that  patrols  go 
out  every  night,  seven  months  needs  a  good  deal  of 
luck  to  get  through  without  hurt.  As  for  malaria, 
dysentery  and  other  diseases  unknown  to  the  soldier 
in  France,  the  figures  I  have  given  in  another  chapter 
are  an  indication  of  the  extent  to  which  they  appear 
in  the  programme  of  the  "  picnic."  You  are  about  as 
likely  to  get  through  the  summer  without  malaria  in 
the  Balkans  as  you  are  to  go  through  an  English 
winter  without  catching  cold. 

It  is  the  terrible  monotony  of  life  on  the  Mace- 
donian front  that  is  one  of  its  chief  hardships.  Away 
up  there  on  stony  hillsides,  with  nothing  but  the 
same  great  tracts  of  open  country  before  their  eyes, 
the  men  hanker  above  everything  for  a  change.  They 
have  many  of  them  hardly  seen  a  town  since  they 


PEOPLE  AND  THINGS  IN  MACEDONIA         277 

landed  in  the  Balkans  nearly  two  years  ago,  nor  even 
a  building,  except  for  the  mud  hovels  of  a  ruined 
Greek  village.  The  official  title  "  Salonica  Army  " 
has  led  to  the  notion  that  our  force  on  the  Balkan 
front  spends  its  time  sitting  in  cafes  in  Salonica 
itself.  By  far  the  great  majority  of  the  men  have 
never  seen  the  place  except  as  they  passed  through 
it  on  their  way  up-country,  a  few  hours  after  setting 
foot  on  the  Quay. 

But,  though  I  have  visited  every  part  of  our  Mace- 
donian front,  I  have  never  seen  or  heard  of  the  least 
sign  of  a  flagging  of  their  spirits.  They  are  eager 
for  a  fight  when  it  comes,  and  between  whiles  they 
hold  the  line,  and  dig,  and  carry  water  up  steep 
slopes  through  endless  communication-trenches  with 
cheerfulness  in  their  hearts,  if  voice  and  bearing  be 
any  key  to  their  feelings.  I  cannot  imagine  on  what 
strangely  inaccurate  reports  the  suggestion  made  re- 
cently in  the  House  of  Commons  was  based,  that  the 
men  of  the  Salonica  Army  were  losing  their  morale. 
On  the  contrary  their  discipline  is  remarkably  good, 
and  military  "  crime  "  rare. 

They  keep  themselves  amused,  in  the  rare  leisure 
that  they  get,  by  their  own  exertions.  No  companies 
of  London  actors  or  travelling  cinema-shows  reach 
the  Balkans,  but  the  quality  of  the  entertainments 
that  the  men  themselves  produce  is  really  astonishing. 
One  division's  pantomime  played  to  20,000  people 
during  its  run,  and  it  would  have  gone  with  as  great 
success  on  a  London  stage.  A  huge  barn  was  fitted 
up  by  the  Engineers  as  a  theatre,  close  up  to  the 
front  lines,  and  arrangements  were  made  for  detach- 
ments of  men  belonging  to  battalions  that  were  out 


278         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

of  the  line  to  be  brought  to  see  it.  A  tumble-down 
Greek  house  next  door  was  fitted  up  into  the  "Palace 
Hotel "  for  officers  who  had  come  so  far  that  they 
had  to  stay  the  night  after  the  show. 

It  was  remarkable  how  every  unit  that  produced  a 
show  invariably  found  some  one  to  fill  excellently  the 
part  of  principal  girl.    The  leading  lady  of  the  highly 
successful  revues  "  Hullo,  Salonica  "  and  "  Bon  jour, 
Salonique  "  at  the  Ordnance  Base  Depot  was  a  mar- 
vel of  feminine  grace  and  beauty.     There  was  a 
charming  brunette  in  the  Durham  Light  Infantry's 
"  Aladdin  "  who  rolled  most  captivating  eyes  at  her 
audience,  while  the  "  Kitty  "  of  a  divisional  pantomime 
was  the  flapper  of  a  dream, — dainty,  modest,  with 
eyes,  and  a  smile,  and  ankles  that  made  it  seem  im- 
possible, as  you  looked  across  the  footlights,  that  she 
should  be  a  corporal  in  a  field-ambulance  who  had 
been  wrestling  in  the  mud  with  refractory  mules  all 
day.    Kitty  and  the  Beauty  Chorus  which  supported 
her  were  dressed  regardlessly,  to  the  full  extent  of 
the  resources  of  the  dressmakers  and  lingerie  mer- 
chants of  Salonica,  and  somewhere  in  the  archives 
of  the  Salonica  Army  there  is  a  telegram  sent  down 
from  the  front  to  an  officer  of  the  division  who  was 
on  three  days'  leave  in  town,  in  approximately  these 
terms :  "  Urgent.    Bring  back  with  you  without  fail 
to-night  the  following:  Three  pairs  silk  stockings 
size  seven  and   one  lace-embroidered   camisole   for 
Kitty,  five  yards  pink  satin  for  Abanazar's  second 
wife  and  a  black  stuff  dress  for  Mrs.  Twankey."    And 
scrawled  across  the  telegram  is  the  indignant  endorse- 
ment: "  G.H.Q.  demands  an  immediate  explanation 
of  this  idiotic  rubbish  passing  over  Army  wires." 


PEOPLE  AND  THINGS  IN  MACEDONIA         279 

Gardening  is  another  diversion  of  the  British  Army 
in  the  Balkans.  It  is,  indeed,  officially  enjoined,  with 
the  aim  of  raising  as  much  as  possible  on  the  spot  in 
the  way  of  vegetables  for  varying  and  expanding  the 
rations  of  the  troops,  and  prizes  are  offered  for  the 
best  produce  in  a  brigade  or  divisional  area.  I  re- 
member one  quaint  meeting  I  had  with  a  stolid  old 
fellow  up  at  the  front,  elderly  for  a  private,  who, 
but  for  his  khaki  trousers,  would  have  been  the  type 
of  a  family  gardener  at  hime.  His  little  patch  was 
in  a  nullah  that  was  shared  by  a  battery  of  sixty- 
pounders,  whose  particularly  violent  discharges  filled 
the  echoing  ravine  with  din  about  once  a  minute.  Yet, 
undisturbed,  he  leaned  upon  his  rake  and  looked  at 
his  plants  in  that  resigned  way  beloved  of  gardeners, 
'  Yus,  the  tomaties  is  doin'  well,  I  don't  say  but 
what  they  ain't.  Them  beans  now1— r(  Cr-r-rash " 
from  a  sixty-pounder — them  beans  won't  never  come 
to  no  good.  Sun's  too  'ot  for  them.  Want  a  bit  o' 
rain,  that's  what  they  want.  That  air  spinach 
now  seeded  afore  it  was  three  inches  high.  Too 
thin,  the  syle  is;  that's  what  it  is," — and  another 
eruption  of  the  guns  punctuated  his  dreary  mono- 
tone. 

A  little  shooting  is  about  all  that  officers  get  in 
the  way  of  amusement.  Game  abounds  in  Mace- 
donia; there  are  snipe  and  duck  in  the  marshes,  par- 
tridges and  hares  on  the  plains  and  hills.  These  ex- 
cursions lead  sometimes  to  strange  encounters.  There 
was  an  officer  of  Yeomanry  on  the  Struma  who  went 
out  before  dawn  one  day  for  the  morning  flight  of 
geese  to  a  place  he  had  noticed  when  on  patrol  be- 
tween the  lines.  While  lying  up  there  he  saw  with 


280        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

some  consternation  three  Bulgars  with  rifles  in  their 
hands  advancing  through  the  reeds.  Was  it  a  patrol 
that  had  seen  him  go  in,  and  was  bent  on  capturing 
him?  He  tried  to  move  off  as  inconspicuously  as  pos- 
sible, but  the  Bulgars  saw  him, — and  immediately 
dropped  their  rifles  and  put  up  their  hands.  The 
situation  having  taken  this  agreeable  turn,  the  officer 
decided  that  there  was  no  need  to  interrupt  his  morn- 
ing's sport,  so  he  kept  his  prisoners  waiting  until  he 
had  shot  three  geese  and  two  duck,  and  then  made 
them  carry  them  in  for  him. 

Another  sportsman,  who  bears  a  name  well-known 
at  Olympia  Horse  Shows  in  bygone  days,  got  out 
several  couples  of  beagles  and  hunted  hares,  as  in  the 
story  of  Brigadier  Gerard.  One  day  his  beagles  ran 
a  hare  out  through  our  lines  and  into  Poroi  station, 
which  was  held  by  a  Bulgarian  outpost,  where  the 
master,  who  had  followed  them  as  far  as  seemed  pru- 
dent, abandoned  them  as  certain  prisoners  to  the 
enemy,  and  broke  off  the  hunt.  But  a  few  hours 
later  his  little  beagles  came  trotting  in,  perfectly 
safe  and  satisfied  with  their  run  into  the  enemy's 
country. 

The  night  patrolling,  which  makes  up  so  much  of 
the  day-to-day  work  of  the  troops  in  the  front  line  in 
the  Balkans,  is  entered  into  with  zest.  In  fact,  I 
have  heard  an  officer  whisper,  when  out  with  a  night- 
patrol,  as  the  severest  threat  he  could  use  to  a  man, 
"  If  you  can't  make  less  noise  than  that,  Brown,  I 
won't  bring  you  out  again."  This  night  hunting 
appeals  to  the  sporting  instincts  of  the  men,  and  it  is 
wonderful  training  for  young  officers.  For  patrol- 
ling in  the  Balkans  is  not,  as  on  the  Western  front,  a 


I/A,  !#5     '^CjSJAM^^^1'^ 


^  MA$$^sm.  -^g 

•&         ;-:^^^^.  ^  **&%&%  ^5 

P*   gGM^^L  V*      ^*«*^; 

«toLTffl?fe(i         ~:&&&'/!ni&  ..  <<^•^. 


^-3-1  ~  "^r.ZTguffig-a  ^ 

p-'":p>^'^=^E>^£A7>r^y£^ 


PEOPLE  AND  THINGS  IN  MACEDONIA         281 

matter  of  crawling  about  in  a  shell-cratered  interval 
of  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  in  width,  lit  up  by  cease- 
less German  flares.  The  Macedonian  method  has 
greater  scope.  It  involves  a  sort  of  little  campaign  of 
its  own.  It  fixes  on  its  own  line  of  advance,  chooses 
alternate  routes  for  possible  retirement,  has  support- 
ing patrols  at  certain  points  in  rear  to  fall  back  upon 
in  case  of  need,  decides  what  defensive  positions  it 
shall  hold  if  attacked  by  superior  force, — the  Bui- 
gars  hardly  ever  venture  out  except  in  parties  of 
fifty  at  a  time, — sends  out  scouts  ahead  and  maintains 
a  rearguard  behind.  For  there  are  places  on  our 
front  where  the  opposing  lines  of  trenches  are  a 
couple  of  miles  apart,  the  lie  of  the  ground  being  such 
that  if  either  side  advanced  its  position  it  would  put 
itself  in  a  condition  of  inferiority  with  regard  to  the 
other,  and  in  that  space  there  is  plenty  of  room  for 
ambushes  and  traps  and  night  surprises.  There  are 
hills  and  ravines  and  woods  and  ruined  villages,  the 
last  of  which  are  usually  the  goals  of  our  patrolling 
parties,  as  the  enemy  outposts  sometimes  occupy 
them  at  night.  It  is  an  eerie  business  moving  for  two 
miles  or  so  in  single  file,  with  all  the  stealth  of  bur- 
glars crossing  a  wired  lawn  ( for  the  same  reasons  too, 
since  the  Bulgars  occasionally  lay  trip-wires  for  our 
men  to  ring  a  bell  or  detonate  a  bomb,  so  that  they, 
lying  up  at  close  range,  can  get  a  sitting  shot) .  Each 
step  has  to  be  taken  as  gently  as  if  you  were  in  a  sick- 
room, and  innumerable  times  you  must  crouch  to  the 
ground  completely  motionless,  while  the  leader  recon- 
noitres a  mysterious  shadow  that  looks  as  if  it  might 
be  a  lurking  Bulgar.  The  meeting  of  hostile  patrols, 
when  it  does  come,  is  a  sudden  affair  of  bomb  and 


282 

bayonet,  which,  though  it  end  in  victory,  often  means 
a  difficult  journey  back  across  rough  country  carry- 
ing wounded  men  in  the  dark. 

Strange  things  happen  sometimes  in  villages  that 
are  regularly  occupied  by  our  outposts.  In  one  of 
them  our  men  noticed  that  punctually  at  nine-fifteen 
every  evening  a  country -bred  dog  came  loping  along 
the  main  street,  and  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
afterwards  went  silently  back  towards  the  Bulgar 
lines.  He  did  not  look  like  the  ordinary  scavenger 
dog  of  Greek  villages,  who  snaps  at  your  heels  till 
you  pelt  him  away  with  stones.  This  dog  had  a  seri- 
ous air,  as  of  one  in  regular  employment.  He  never 
varied  his  pace ;  he  was  as  regular  as  a  city  man  going 
for  his  morning  train.  The  men  got  a  little  uneasy 
about  him.  His  punctuality  and  purposefulness  were 
uncanny.  Titbits  of  bully  beef  were  held  out  as  he 
trotted  past.  He  did  not  even  glance  at  them.  Then 
some  one  suggested  that  there  might  be  a  Bulgar  spy 
hidden  in  the  village  and  that  the  dog  had  been 
trained  to  fetch  and  carry  messages  between  him  and 
the  enemy.  In  the  first  indignation  of  this  idea  a 
sergeant  took  a  shot  at  the  dog.  It  missed,  but  the 
dog  never  even  growled;  he  just  swung  on  a  little 
faster  towards  his  mysterious  destination.  He  was 
clearly  a  soldier-dog,  and  prepared  to  accept  the  risks 
of  his  calling.  So  orders  were  given  that  the  animal 
was  not  to  be  shot  at  any  more.  He  was  to  be  tracked 
instead,  followed  on  his  errand.  It  was  a  clever,  elu- 
sive mongrel,  though,  and  despite  the  fact  that  men 
were  posted  at  the  crossings  of  the  different  streets  to 
watch  which  way  he  went,  he  would  slip  in  and  out  of 
the  confused  shadows  of  those  tumble-down  houses 


PEOPLE  AND  THINGS  IN  MACEDONIA        283 

so  quickly  that  in  the  poor  light  even  the  sharpest- 
eyed  soldier  could  not  follow  him. 

There  was  a  denouement  to  this.  A  soldier,  going 
into  one  of  the  deserted  houses  to  look  for  firewood, 
suddenly  met,  at  the  turn  of  the  wall,  a  grey-coated 
figure  face  to  face.  Both  men,  Bulgarian  and  Eng- 
lishman, started  back  in  mutual  astonishment.  Then 
the  spy  leapt  round  into  the  darkness,  for  it  was  at 
night.  The  Englishman  was  after  him  immediately, 
but  the  Bulgar  knew  the  twists  and  turnings  of  his 
lurking-place,  and  got  away, — to  fall  later  into  the 
hands  of  a  party  sent  to  search  for  him.  Was  he  the 
mysterious  dog-messenger's  master?  You  could 
hardly  expect  him  to  give  so  faithful  an  animal  away. 

Occasionally  the  patrols  find  proclamations  that 
have  been  left  for  them  by  enemy  parties  the  previous 
night.  These  have  to  be  approached  cautiously,  since 
they  are  sometimes  only  a  decoy  to  bomb-traps.  Here 
is  the  text  of  one  that  was  found  while  I  was  staying 
with  a  brigade  on  the  Doiran-Vardar  front.  We  had 
seen  it  with  glasses  stuck  up  on  a  bush  in  front  of  the 
Bulgar  trenches,  and  the  following  night  a  small 
patrol  went  out  and  got  it.  It  begins: 

"  To  the  English  and  French  troops : — 
WE  ARE  DEFENDING  THE  FRONTIERS 
OF  OUR  COUNTRY  AND  THE  RIGHTS 
OF  OUR  PEOPLE.  You  are  well  aware  of  the 
love  Bulgarians  possess  for  theier  (sic)  country  and 
the  bravery  with  which  they  are  fighting  against  the 
aspirations  of  their  numerous  enemies  is  well  known 
to  you.  For  our  country's  glory  we  are  ready  to  die 
and  we  shall  do  every  think  (sic)  to  prevent  the 
enemy  from  entering  our  territory.  What  are  you 


284        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

doing  in  this  forcing  country?  Are  you  still  believing 
in  the  hideous  lies  of  your  statesmen  telling  you  you 
are  fighting  for  the  liberty  and  independence  of  the 
small  nations?  Has  it  never  come  to  your  thoughts 
that  you  are  doing  just  the  contrary  here?  Look  at 
Roumania,  hitherto  so  flourishing.  There  you  will 
see  the  work  your  diplomats  have  been  doing.  She 
also  was  forced  to  take  part  in  this  war  and  in  hardly 
more  than  2  months  she  has  been  conquered  by  us  and 
our  allies.  Bukarest  and  the  whole  Roumanian  ter- 
ritory are  in  our  hands.  More  than  250,000  Rou- 
manian soldiers  and  1000  guns  have  been  captured. 
Practically  the  whole  country  is  devastated  in  con- 
sequence of  operations  of  war.  Look  at  Greece. 
What  are  your  governments  doing  with  her  poor 
and  unfortunate  populations?  Are  the  manipula- 
tions going  on  the  re  (sic)  not  disgracefull  and  cer- 
tainly not  creditable  to  nations  pretending  to  be  the 
guardians  of  the  small  nations?  Why  are  you  still 
following  your  leaders?  Why  not  ask  them  to  be 
brought  back  to  your  country  where  your  wives  and 
children  are  awaiting  you  impatiently?  If  this  is  im- 
possible, come  over  to  us.  Don't  believe  that  we  are 
barbarians.  Our  prisoners,  but  especially  English 
and  French,  are  very  well  treated  by  us,  and  the 
nourishment  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired.  Instead  of 
staying  in  humid  trenches  day  and  night  and  thereby 
supporting  an  unjust  and  disgracefull  action  come 
over  to  us  and  render  yourselves,  in  order  to  put  and 
end  to  the  injustice  and  infamy  your  statesmen  are 
forcing  you  to  do." 

Despite  all  this  eloquence,  including  that  touch 
about  nourishment  that  "  leaves  nothing  to  be  de- 
sired," which  stamps  the  author  of  the  document  as 
a  German  ex-hotel  manager,  the  enemy  in  the  Bal- 


kans  never  got  a  single  prisoner  from  the  Allies  for 
whom  they  did  not  have  to  fight  hard,  and  very  few 
indeed  of  those,  while  on  the  other  hand  there  are 
great  camps  at  Salonica  of  both  Bulgar  and  German 
captives  in  addition  to  those  who  have  been  shipped 
away. 

The  Allied  propaganda  took  a  more  artful  form. 
The  French  had  a  lot  of  picture  postcards  taken  show- 
ing Bulgar  prisoners  lining  up  for  their  midday  ra- 
tion, each  with  a  half -loaf  of  bread  under  his  arm 
and  a  steaming  pannikin  of  soup  in  his  hand.  These 
they  got  Bulgar  prisoners  to  sign,  with  the  addition 
of  a  little  message  about  the  good  treatment  they  had 
received,  and  they  were  then  dropped  over  the  enemy 
lines  as  a  corrective  to  the  stories  which  Bulgar  officers 
used  to  tell  their  men  about  the  certainty  of  execu- 
tion which  awaited  them  if  they  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  Allies.  The  plan  met  with  much  success.  Desert- 
ers kept  constantly  coming  in,  and  many  of  them 
brought  these  postcards  with  them,  evidently  con- 
sidering them  as  a  sort  of  safe-conduct  or  prospectus. 
One  man  said  he  had  paid  fifteen  francs  for  his  copy 
to  another  Bulgar  who  had  found  it. 

But  the  Bulgar  is  by  no  means  a  despicable  fighter. 
He  is  as  good  as  the  1917  Boche.  Physically  he  is  a 
sturdy  fellow,  as  ugly  as  sin,  with  the  Mongolian  writ 
plainly  on  his  unshaven  face.  In  all  essentials  he  is 
well  equipped.  Prisoners  always  have  good  boots. 
Their  packs  are  full  of  practical  things, — such  as 
a  sort  of  German  "  Tommy's  cooker  "  spirit-stove. 
One  deserter  had  five  pounds  of  sugar  in  his  pack. 

In  action  the  Bulgars  are  slow  to  renew  a  first 
effort  that  has  been  defeated.  In  a  retreat  it  is  likely 


£86        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

that  they  would  be  quite  undisciplined.  The  tactics 
which  we  have  from  the  first  employed  against  them, 
to  attack  with  dash  and  counter-attack  at  once, — have 
invariably  justified  themselves.  Their  artillery  is 
good  but  they  do  not  seem  to  be  able  to  stand  shelling, 
being  in  that  respect  very  different  to  their  Turkish 
allies,  who  are  stolid  and  impassive  upon  the  defen- 
sive under  the  worst  bombardment. 

On  the  whole  our  men  feel  no  special  resentment 
against  the  Bulgar  as  an  enemy.  They  will  tell  you, 
in  fact,  several  stories  of  instances  in  which  he  has 
behaved  chivalrously  in  battle,  in  the  way  of  letting 
wounded  men  be  brought  in,  even  by  means  of  am- 
bulance-waggons within  short  range  of  the  Bulgar 
positions.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  such  men 
of  ours  as  fall  into  the  enemy's  hands  are  well  treated, 
until  at  any  rate  they  have  been  passed  back  behind 
divisional  headquarters ;  what  happens  to  them  in  the 
interior  of  Bulgaria  is  not  entirely  known;  probably 
the  Bulgar s  differentiate  in  their  treatment  of  the 
various  nationalities  among  the  Allies.  A  Bulgarian 
deserter  gave  me  a  grim  account  of  the  massacre  of 
Serbian  prisoners  at  Prilep  in  November,  1915,  of 
which  he  said  he  had  been  an  eye-witness.  Three  or 
four  hundred  of  them  were  marched  out  from  the 
town,  made  to  dig  their  own  grave,  then  surrounded 
by  a  cordon  of  infantry  and  cut  down  by  a  squadron 
of  cavalry  who  rode  in  amongst  them,  after  which 
dead  and  wounded  alike  were  pushed  into  the  pit  and 
covered  up. 

Taken  prisoners  themselves,  the  Bulgars  behave 
sullenly  but  with  docility.  Stolidity,  doggedness,  ob- 
stinacy and  the  quality  of  being  what  they  call  in 


PEOPLE  AND  THINGS  IN  MACEDONIA         28f 

Scotland  "  dour,"  are  the  most  marked  traits  of  the 
Bulgar  character.  They  were  always  the  Bodies  of 
the  Balkans, — disobliging,  self-confident  to  the  degree 
of  arrogance,  worshippers  of  uniform,  both  of  the 
military  officer  and  the  civilian  official, — the  sort  of 
people  one  did  not  get  on  with  personally,  however 
one  might  admire  their  independence  of  character 
and  the  energy  which  had  changed  Sofia  from  a  Turk- 
ish provincial  town  into  a  tolerably  modern  city  in 
one  generation.  Their  temperament  inclines  them  to 
take  the  war  with  a  certain  sober  relish  and  earnest- 
ness. I  was  with  their  army, — then  an  untried  and 
underestimated  force, — on  manoeuvres  five  years  ago, 
and  was  struck  by  the  seriousness  with  which  the  rank 
and  file  entered  into  the  details  of  mimic  warfare.  I 
also  saw  them  beat  the  Turks  at  Lule  Burgas,  and 
though  with  the  other  side,  one  could  not  help  realis- 
ing that  they  were  an  army  of  high  quality  and  train- 
ing for  a  Balkan  state.  They  had  already  acquired 
the  first  elements  of  some  facts  that  were  not  yet  fully 
realised  by  far  more  important  European  armies,  even 
when  the  Great  War  came,  for  it  was  by  artillery 
superiority  and  by  great  predominance  of  machine- 
guns  that  they  defeated  the  Turk  at  Lule  Burgas, 
however  much  the  latter's  natural  disorder  in  a  war  of 
movement  under  his  own  native  leadership  contri- 
buted to  his  undoing. 

Among  recollections  of  Macedonia  the  one  which 
will  live  longest  in  the  memories  of  those  who  have 
spent  a  summer  there,  is  that  of  its  flies. 

"  Reveille  is  when  I  get  up,"  is  the  remark  attri- 
buted to  some  general  who  had  strong  views  about 
early  rising.  He  could  not  have  been  so  positive  if 


288         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

he  had  been  a  general  in  the  Salonica  Army,  for  there, 
in  summer  at  least,  reveille  is  when  the  flies  get  up. 
They  take  good  care  of  that,  and  their  punctuality 
in  this  respect,  to  say  nothing  of  their  dash,  elan  and 
determination  in  following  up  an  objective,  is  enough 
to  make  the  Macedonian  fly  a  stimulating  example  to 
the  young  soldier. 

The  time  between  about  four  and  five  on  a  bright 
June  morning,  when  it  is  already  broad  daylight  but 
not  yet  time  to  turn  out,  ought  really  to  be  the 
pleasantest  of  all  the  hours  of  rest.  The  sun  shines 
into  the  tent  strongly  enough  to  rouse  you,  yet  reveille 
is  still  distant.  The  disagreeable  necessity  of  having 
to  leap  up  from  happy  unconsciousness  to  face  in- 
stantly the  ordeals  of  shaving  and  dressing  is  com- 
pletely avoided.  You  ought  to  be  able  to  pass  gently 
over  a  sort  of  twilight  bridge  from  slumber  to  activity. 

But  the  kindly  dispositions  of  Nature  in  this  respect 
are  entirely  defeated  in  the  Balkans  by  the  misplaced 
activity  of  the  fly.  No  sooner  has  the  morning  sun, 
flooding  in  through  the  triangle  of  the  tent-door, 
brought  you  to  a  voluptuous  state  of  conscious  repose, 
than  the  first  fly  of  the  day,  with  startling  suddenness, 
settles  on  your  face. 

An  instantaneous  and  only  half -conscious  twitch 
sends  him  off  again  as  abruptly  as  if  it  were  just  a 
mistake.  A  second  later,  though,  and  he  is  back, — 
a  brief  buzz  as  he  lands,  then  that  maddening,  con- 
centrated tickle  of  his  six  feet.  With  deliberate 
malice  he  perches  on  the  corners  of  his  victim's  lips, 
his  temples, — anywhere  that  is  peculiarly  sensitive. 

His  buzzes  of  delight  now  awake  the  other  flies 
sleeping  in  the  conical  tent-top.  They  shake  them- 


PEOPLE  AND  THINGS  IN  MACEDONIA         289 

selves,  preen  their  wings  and  legs  complacently  at; 
the  prospect  of  another  day  of  persecution,  and  come 
trooping  down  to  join  him.  The  weary  soldier,  with 
a  sleepy  oath,  pulling  the  blanket  over  his  head, 
fights  in  vain  for  that  last  half -hour  of  drowsy  slum- 
ber. The  flies  have  discovered  that  drawing  up  the 
blanket  has  thrown  his  feet  open  and  they  start  a 
diabolical  tickle-dance  upon  his  toes.  He  twists  and 
wriggles,  tugs  the  blanket  this  way  and  that,  waves 
clumsy  hands  ineffectually  through  the  empty  air. 
The  damnable  titillation  skips  from  one  part  of  his 
body  to  another,  and  his  temper  is  already  one  of 
black  fury  before  he  is  properly  awake.  Reveille 
comes  as  a  relief  under  such  circumstances,  and  in  an 
atmosphere  studded  with  flies,  growing  more  and 
more  active  and  excited  as  the  warm  sun  cooks  the 
tented  air  up  to  its  morning  temperature  of  105°, 
he  starts  to  dress. 

But  it  is  only  the  comparatively  slow-witted  flies 
that  choose  tents  for  their  area  of  operations;  the 
wideawake  ones,  as  you  find  when  you  go  across  to 
breakfast,  are  all  in  the  mess,  and  the  result  is  that 
your  first  impression  of  the  breakfast-table  is  that 
it  is  not  set  for  a  meal  at  all,  but  for  a  conjuror's 
entertainment.  No  food  is  visible.  Instead,  there  are 
a  number  of  objects  completely  hidden  under  thick 
shrouds  of  gauze,  and  several  large  tins  turned  upside 
down  like  the  hollow  black  boxes  from  beneath  which 
glasses  of  water  are  made  to  vanish  by  the  tap  of  a 
wand  at  children's  parties. 

"  Butter,  sir? "  says  the  mess-waiter,  approaching 
the  mysteriously  furnished  board.  One  has  a  fasci- 
nated feeling  that  he  may  suddenly  produce  it  from 


290 

one  of  the  pockets  of  your  tunic,  or  offer  instead  a 
white  rabbit  or  bowl  of  goldfish  drawn  out  of  the 
folds  of  green  gauze.  As  he  pulls  away  the  veil,  how- 
ever, you  see  a  dish  of  half -melted  butter,  into  which 
twenty  flies  spring  with  suicidal  eagerness.  You 
snatch  a  dripping  spoonful,  the  waiter  vigorously 
chases  the  surviving  flies  out  again,  and  the  butter 
vanishes  once  more  beneath  its  shroud. 

The  most  ticklish  part  of  the  meal,  though,  is  when 
it  comes  to  helping  yourself  to  marmalade.  This 
calls  for  the  closest  co-operation  between  breakfaster 
and  mess-waiter,  since  the  most  active  flies  reserve 
themselves  entirely  for  attacks  upon  the  marmalade. 
As  the  waiter  twitches  off  the  tin  conjuring-box  you 
find  underneath  a  smaller  tin  of  marmalade  whose 
gaping  mouth  is  instantly  almost  blocked  by  greedily 
jostling  flies.  Pushing  these  aside  with  your  spoon 
you  take  what  you  want,  usually  burying  one  or  two 
of  the  bolder  insects  at  each  spoonful,  and  you  then 
have  to  carry  on  a  sort  of  rearguard  action  with  the 
remainder  until  the  pot  is  safely  within  its  defences 
once  more. 

Meanwhile  other  flies  are  attacking  the  marmalade 
on  your  plate,  and  as  you  raise  each  jam-spread  piece 
of  bread  to  your  mouth,  you  are  oblige  to  protect  it 
on  its  way  by  waving  your  right  hand  to  and  fro  over 
it  in  the  air.  The  sight  of  a  whole  mess  eating  bread 
and  marmalade  on  a  hot  morning  like  this  is  remark- 
able. They  look  like  a  party  of  would-be  magicians 
making  futile  passes  over  their  food  in  the  hope  of 
changing  it  into  something  more  appetising. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed,  however,  that  the  flies 
have  it  all  their  own  way.  Most  vigorous  reprisals 


PEOPLE  AND  THINGS  IN  MACEDONIA         291 

are  practised  upon  them,  and  it  may  be  said  that  its 
own  high  standards  of  energy,  ingenuity  and  per- 
tinacity are  thoroughly  maintained  by  the  British 
Army  in  warfare  with  these  ever-present  enemies. 

The  multitude  of  the  means  by  which  the  defeat  of 
the  fly  may  be  compassed  is  astonishing.  They  are  of 
two  chief  classes, — preventive  and  punitive.  Fly- 
whisks,  fly-proof  huts,  gauze  curtains,  mosquito- 
netting  and  the  burning  in  saucers  of  mysterious  sub- 
stances supposed  to  keep  flies  away,  are  some  of  the 
preventive  measures  used.  But  it  is  the  engines  of 
retaliation  that  are  naturally  more  popular  with  the 
soldier. 

The  most  elementary  of  these  is  the  fly-strafer,  or 
fly-kesh.  This  consists  simply  of  six  inches  by  three 
df  wire  gauze  let  into  a  twelve-inch  wooden  handle, 
and  the  demand  for  these  primitive  instruments  can 
be  realised  from  the  fact  that  though  the  cost  of  their 
manufacture  might  conceivably  be  a  penny,  the  larg- 
est store  in  Salonica  sells  hundreds  of  them  at  a 
shilling  each. 

Fly-destroyers  of  a  more  scientific  kind  are  also 
sent  out  from  London  by  parcel-post,  chiefly  of  the 
nature  of  fly-guns  (a  dilettante  weapon),  and  swat- 
ters of  complicated  kinds.  But  the  use  to  which  they 
are  put  is  so  enormous  that  such  elaborate  instru- 
ments soon  break  under  the  strain,  and  spare  parts 
cannot  be  obtained. 

As  regards  fly-papers,  whole  pages  could  be  writ- 
ten of  the  various  kinds  that  are  in  use  and  their 
comparative  merits.  The  mere  difference  of  opinion 
as  to  whether  a  fly  settles  more  readily  on  a  flat  sur- 
face or  on  an  edge  is  enough  to  divide  the  Salonica 


292         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

Army  into  two  distinct  schools.  One  prefers  the 
broad  slabs  of  treacly  paper  that  seem  to  be  the  fa- 
vourite arm  of  the  local  population,  while  the  others 
have  a  higher  opinion  of  the  killing  qualities  of  a 
long,  sticky,  spiral  string.  The  best  thing  is  to  back 
your  chances  both  ways. 

Officers  of  scientific  training  claim  that  the  fumes 
of  certain  liquids  are  what  the  fly  most  dreads.  They 
wait  in  such  patience  as  they  may  till  evening,  when 
the  tired  fly  gathers  by  hundreds  in  the  narrow  fun- 
nel of  canvas  at  the  top  of  the  tent-pole,  and  then 
fumigate  him  with  the  vapours  of  ill-smelling  chemi- 
cals burnt  in  the  lids  of  tobacco  tins.  The  expedient 
is  rather  a  thankless  one  for  during  the  rest  of  the  eve- 
ning a  constant  drizzle  of  stupefied  flies  prevails  and 
it  takes  a  long  time  to  brush  the  bodies  out  of  one's 
hair  afterwards. 

But  undoubtedly  the  methods  of  fly-extinction  that 
give  the  most  satisfaction  to  the  persecuted  soldier 
are  those  which  are  a  little  vindictive  in  their  opera- 
tion. The  buzz  of  ineffectively  struggling  wings  that 
comes  from  a  well-covered  fly-paper  has  a  savagely 
soothing  effect  upon  one's  temper,  and  to  see  a  tentful 
of  hot,  tired,  irritated  Tommies  clearing  for  action  as 
a  fly-strafing  party  on  a  sultry  afternoon  is  a  lesson  in 
studied  ferocity.  You  must  realise  that  at  Salonica 
with  its  June  temperature  of  over  90  in  the  shade, 
daylight  saving  is  not  a  legislative  luxury  but  a  prim- 
ary necessity.  The  men  start  work  at  5  A.M.,  and  in 
standing  camp  during  the  hottest  part  of  the  day, 
as  far  as  the  work  of  the  unit  allows,  they  rest.  '  To 
rest "  is  hard  enough  anyhow,  sweltering  in  a  tent  as 
hot  as  the  jowl  of  Moloch,  but  when  you  have  got  to 


PEOPLE  AND  THINGS  IN  MACEDONIA        293 

share  that  tent  not  only  with  seven  other  men  but  with 
as  many  hundred  flies,  the  very  pretence  is  a  torture. 
So  a  fatigue  of  two  of  the  surest  fly-slayers  goes  first 
into  the  midst  of  the  buzzing,  tickling,  maddening 
crowd.  "  Reach  me  that  'ere  towel,  Bill,"  hisses  the 
leader  through  tight  lips.  "  Got  yours?  Now  then, 
you  blighters."  And  frantic  flies,  stampeding  for 
safety  to  the  top  of  the  tent,  are  felled  and  flattened 
by  dozens  at  a  blow. 

By  the  same  token  a  certain  kind  of  wire  trap 
seems  popular  because  it  catches  the  little  fiends  alive 
and  keeps  them  buzzing  and  bumping  up  against  each 
other  all  day  so  that  they  get,  before  they  die,  a  taste 
of  the  irritation  they  cause.  I  suppose  it  is  the  utter 
uselessness  of  the  fly  that  makes  normally  humane 
people  feel  so  barbarous  towards  him.  If  their  at- 
tacks had  some  clear  object,  such  as  biting  or  sting- 
ing, one  might  even  hate  them  less,  but  the  futility 
of  an  insect  that  goes  crawling  all  over  you  for  appa- 
rently no  reason  but  exercise  is  not  to  be  borne. 

Needless  to  say  the  most  painstaking  trouble  is 
taken  in  the  army  to  stop  flies  breeding,  just  as  Mrs. 
Partington  took  trouble  to  sweep  the  Atlantic  from 
her  doorstep.  The  doctors  did  everything  conceiv- 
able in  the  spring  to  keep  them  down,  and  even  in- 
vented a  mysterious  and  special  preparation  known 
as  "  Solution  C  "  to  sprinkle  over  everything  that  was 
capable  of  serving  as  a  fly  maternity  home.  Manure 
is  burnt  or  buried;  horse-lines  are  swept  and  gar- 
nished several  times  a  day.  But  where  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  men  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  ani- 
mals are  gathered  together,  especially  in  that  climate, 
and  in  the  neighbourhood  of  towns  and  villages  where 


294        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

public  health  regulations  barely  exist,  you  might  as 
well  hope  to  stop  the  summer  sun  from  rising  as  to 
make  more  than  a  relative  difference  to  the  plague  of 
summer  flies.  The  fact  that  the  army  is  not  perse- 
cuted a  thousandfold  worse  shows  how  well  the  doc- 
tors' precept  and  the  soldiers'  practice  have  worked 
together. 

It  is  at  the  hospitals,  of  course,  that  the  fly  gives 
the  worst  trouble,  and  he  is  fought  there  like  the  pest 
he  is.  To  let  the  air  in  and  keep  the  flies  out  is  the 
great  problem  of  every  hospital.  Not  only  do  flies 
help  more  than  any  other  cause  to  fill  the  dysentery 
wards,  but  they  torment  enfeebled  fever-patients  to 
the  borders  of  insanity.  In  an  active  campaign  it 
would  be  far  worse,  of  course.  The  most  ghastly 
recollection  I  brought  away  from  the  Peninsula  was 
the  chance  remark  of  a  doctor  that  during  the  worst 
of  the  summer  weather  there,  as  you  went  to  touch  a 
helpless  wounded  man,  a  black  cloud  of  flies  would 
start  up  from  inside  his  gasping  mouth. 

But  in  a  standing  general  hospital  all  sorts  of 
ingenious  devices  exist  to  slaughter  the  fly,  including 
at  one  casualty  clearing  station  near  Salonica  what 
is  claimed  to  be  the  largest  fly-trap  in  the  world, — 
a  thing  as  big  as  a  hencoop,  of  wire  gauze,  within 
which  millions  of  baffled  flies  buzz  desperately  until 
evening  brings  them  sudden  death.  The  best  bait  for 
these  has  been  found  to  be  a  cocktail,  Salonica  cock- 
tails being  the  sweetest  and  stickiest  liquid  known. 
But  they  have  the  disadvantage  of  costing  two  francs 
each. 

Curiously  enough,  absolutely  the  worst  place  for 
flies  that  I  have  found  in  Salonica  was  just  where  one 


PEOPLE  AND  THINGS  IN  MACEDONIA        295 

would  have  expected  to  be  free  of  them  entirely, — 
on  board  a  battleship  over  a  mile  from  shore.  It 
seems  that  when  the  wind  sets,  as  it  generaly  does,  off 
the  Vardar  marshes,  it  blows  great  clouds  of  flies  out 
to  sea,  and  they  avail  themselves  in  dense  swarms  of 
the  life-saving  reputation  of  the  British  Navy. 

But  if  humans  suffer,  what  of  the  unfortunate 
horses,  tied  up  on  their  lines,  with  no  fly-traps,  no  fly- 
papers, no  strafers,  nothing  but  their  tails,  mercifully 
allowed  to  grow  long,  as  a  weapon  against  such  un- 
wearying malvolence  ?  And  not  only  flies,  but  super- 
flies.  Beastly,  yellow-bellied  things  that,  if  you  hit 
them  with  your  fly-whisk,  just  scuttle  contemptu- 
ously to  another  spot,  and  can  only  be  induced  to  leave 
by  being  pulled  off  with  the  fingers.  However  quiet 
your  horse  may  stand  as  a  rule,  it  is  well  to  keep  out 
of  range  of  his  heels  in  summer,  for  he  is  often  stung 
into  a  sudden  lash-out  at  such  a  trying  world  in  gen- 
eral, as  not  a  few  unlucky  grooms  can  tell. 

Fortunately  even  flies  must  sleep,  and  at  night  they 
cease  from  troubling.  But  then,  just  when  the  flies 
go  to  sleep,  the  mosquito  wakes  up. 

But  not  all  the  fauna  of  Macedonia  are  the  soldiers' 
foes.  Some  of  them  he  makes  his  intimate  com- 
panions. Tortoises,  for  instance,  which  are  as  com- 
mon in  the  Balkans  as  field-mice  in  England,  not  only 
serve  him  as  pets  but  as  accessories  to  sport.  Some 
men  keep  a  racing  stable  of  them,  and  will  back  their 
best  tortoise  against  the  fastest  flyer  of  the  next  bat- 
talion over  a  ten-yard  course.  The  young  of  these 
animals  seem  extraordinarily  hardy.  They  make 
long  journeys  through  the  post,  confined  in  card- 
board boxes  addressed  to  families  in  England,  with 


296        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

no  water  and  no  nourishment  other  than  a  handful 
of  green  leaves  stuffed  in  with  them,  and  yet  arrive  in 
quite  a  lively  condition. 

There  was  a  general  who  tamed  an  eagle,  but  most 
officers  content  themselves  with  adopting  a  puppy 
of  the  local  breed  of  immense  sheep-dog,  which  is  sup- 
posed to  be  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  war-dogs  of 
Alexander  the  Great,  is  as  big  as  a  small  calf  and  as 
fierce  as  a  wolf.  He  becomes  tame  and  affectionate 
with  those  he  knows,  but  his  welcome  for  strangers  is 
simply  to  charge  straight  at  them  with  great  white 
fangs  showing  and  a  vicious  snarl  that  leaves  no 
doubt  as  to  his  intentions.  If  you  do  not  know  the 
owner  of  the  brute  the  only  thing  to  do  when  this  hap- 
pens is  to  shoot  him  if  you  have  a  pistol, — quite  a 
number  of  men  have  been  pulled  down  and  worried 
by  them, — or  to  throw  stones  at  him  if  you  have  not. 
Once,  going  outside  my  tent  in  my  pyjamas  in  the 
early  morning  at  a  Corps  Headquarters,  I  was  at- 
tacked by  two  of  them  which  seemed  to  belong  to  the 
place.  There  were  no  stones  about,  but  I  went 
through  the  motions  of  picking  them  up,  which  kept 
the  two  dogs  at  bay  for  a  moment  with  the  thick 
manes  on  the  back  of  their  necks  bristling  and  their 
lips  laid  back.  One  was  working  round  behind  me, 
though,  and  I  fully  expected  to  feel  a  set  of  savage 
teeth  meeting  in  the  back  of  my  leg,  when  a  sleepy 
voice  from  a  tent  near  by,  awakened  by  the  clamour, 
called  out  in  gentle  reproof,  "  Endymion,  Endymion, 
come  here,  you  naughty  dog!"  Endymion,  how- 
ever, was  out  for  blood,  and  would  have  had  it  a 
moment  later  if  his  indulgent  owner  had  not  got  out 
of  bed  and  appeared  with  a  hunting-crop,  at  the  sight 


PEOPLE  AND  THINGS  IN  MACEDONIA         297 

of  which  both  the  hulking  animals  crept  growling 
away. 

The  French  do  not  go  in  so  much  for  taming  the 
wild  creatures  of  Macedonia  as  for  eating  them. 
Wherever  a  French  battalion  is  encamped,  there  will 
you  find  half  a  dozen  soldiers  wading  about  in  the 
stream  driving  the  frogs  into  a  net  they  have  set 
further  down.  Some  of  them,  in  a  fine  spirit  of  enter- 
prise, tried  fillets  of  the  snakes  they  caught  lying  out 
in  the  sun,  and  I  was  assured  by  a  French  officer  that 
much  was  to  be  said  for  a  dish  of  tortoise's  brains, 
which  a  former  chef  in  his  company  prepared  ex- 
quisitely, the  ingredients  for  it  being  obtained  by 
catching  a  number  of  tortoises  and  tickling  their  tails 
until  the  irritation  compelled  them  to  stick  out  their 
heads  at  the  other  end,  which  were  instantly  cut  off. 

There  is  one  sector  of  the  Balkan  front  that  I 
have  not  yet  mentioned,  but  of  which  I  always  think 
with  pleasure,  partly  perhaps  because  I  only  visited 
it  under  the  beautiful  conditions  of  early  summer, 
when  the  Struma  valley  for  a  few  brief  weeks  is  one 
of  the  loveliest  places  in  Europe.  It  is  the  eastern 
end  of  the  Struma  line,  at  the  top  of  the  Gulf  of 
Orfano,  the  most  difficult  part  of  our  front  to  reach 
from  Salonica.  When  I  went  there  in  the  spring, 
all  the  wild  flowers  one  had  ever  heard  of  seemed  to 
be  in  brilliant  bloom.  Above  all,  poppies.  Millions 
of  crimson  wild  poppies,  great  fields  of  heavy  white 
opium  poppies.  Unless  you  have  seen  the  Dutch 
tulip  fields  in  spring,  you  can  hardly  realise  the  masses 
of  solid  colour  made  by  these  fragile  flowers  of  the 
Struma.  You  ride  up  to  the  horse's  belly  in  flowers, 
and  heavy,  seductive  scents  rise  up  from  the  petals 


298        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

you  trample  down.  But  a  week  or  two  later  the  hot 
sun  has  shrivelled  everything,  and  only  a  waste  of 
burnt  yellow  vegetation  remains. 

As  for  crops,  there  are  such  crops  of  wild-sown 
oats  as  would  satisfy  many  an  English  farmer  for  a 
season's  labour.  Fruit  of  all  kinds,  peaches,  water- 
melons, tomatoes.  The  best  tobacco  in  the  world, 
of  course.  '  Why,  they  even  grow  cotton- wool  here," 
I  heard  an  English  soldier  from  Wigan  say,  aston- 
ished to  find  on  a  plant  what  he  had  always  before 
seen  in  bales. 

Very  pleasant  and  restful  the  Struma  looks  in  the 
spring,  and  so  it  would  be  if  it  were  not  for  the  war, 
and  the  fact  that  the  valley  is  one  of  the  most  deadly 
malarial  belts  on  earth,  capable  of  contesting  with 
West  Africa  the  title  of  "  White  Man's  Grave." 

Down  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  Struma  front  we 
are  fighting  on  the  very  site  of  the  ancient  city  of 
Amphipolis,  which  Cleon  attacked  in  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  War.  "  Cleon,  the  demagogue,  don't  you 
know,"  explains  a  subaltern  who  was  on  the  Modern 
side  at  school  three  years  ago,  speaking  with  the 
authoritative  air  of  a  Regius  Professor  of  History, 
"  and  of  course,  Brassidas,  the  Spartan  fellow,  was 
killed  here  too, — just  about  down  there  by  those  mule- 
lines  we  think  it  would  be;  and  then  Thucydides,  you 
know,  got  Stellenbosched  for  not  getting  his  fleet  up 
in  time  from  Thasos  over  there,  so  he  naturally  got 
disgruntled,  and  wrote  his  history  to  explain  what 
really  happened." 

And  as  you  go  round  their  trenches  and  have  it 
pointed  out  to  you  that  "  their  palisade  probably  fol- 
lowed just  about  the  line  of  our  wires,"  you  reflect 


PEOPLE  AND  THINGS  IN  MACEDONIA        299 

how  English  schoolboys  have  suffered  for  genera- 
tions in  their  souls  and  persons  to  acquire  painful 
knowledge  of  a  series  of  skirmishes  that  nowadays 
we  should  hardly  put  in  the  communique. 

But  grave  trouble  is  preparing  for  the  archaeolo- 
gists of  the  future  on  the  site  of  Amphipolis.  Where 
antiquaries  debate  and  hesitate,  the  soldier  steps 
boldly  in.  :<  This  is  Brassidas's  tomb,  then?  "  I  said 
to  a  staff -officer,  pointing  to  a  spot  so  marked  on 
the  brigade  map.  "  Well,  I  called  it  that,"  was  the 
modest  reply.  ''  There  was  a  rather  fine  carved  lion 
there  and  I  happened  to  want  a  name  for  that  place, 
so  I  decided  to  give  old  Brassidas  the  benefit  of  it  as 
a  monument.'* 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
WHAT  IS  HAPPENING  IN  ALBANIA 

A /LONG  the  many  extraneous  and  political  rather 
than  military  problems  with  which  the  Allies 
have  had  to  grapple  in  the  Balkans  is  that 
eternal  and  thorny  question  of  Albania. 

It  was  some  time  before  Albania  was  drawn  into 
the  Balkan  battle-area,  but  first  the  Austrians  ad- 
vanced from  the  north  down  to  the  line  of  the  Skumbi 
river,  then  the  Italians,  who  had  landed  at  Valona, 
extended  their  area  by  successive  steps  up-country 
with  a  view  to  stopping  contraband  between  Greece 
and  the  Central  Empires,  while  the  French  were  led 
by  similar  reasons  to  push  on  into  Albania  from  the 
other  side.  The  result  of  these  converging  move- 
ments was  that  on  February  17th  the  French  and 
Italians  met  near  Erzeg,  about  halfway  across  Al- 
bania, and  the  Allied  front  across  the  Balkans  was 
joined  up  into  a  continuous  line  that  now  stretches 
from  where  the  English  sentry  stands  on  the  shore 
of  the  ^Egean  at  Stavros  to  the  Italian  sentry  on  the 
shore  of  the  Adriatic  at  Santi  Quaranta.  These 
movements  of  penetration  naturally  implied  the  con- 
ciliation as  far  as  possible  of  the  native  Albanian 
population.  But  the  natives  of  Albania  are  most 
difficult  people  to  conciliate,  because  so  few  of  them 
think  alike.  Though  of  the  same  race  and  lan- 
guage, some  of  the  population  is  Mussulman  and 

300 


WHAT  IS  HAPPENING  IN  ALBANIA  301 

some  Christian.  The  Albanians  are  moreover  divided 
by  most  bloodthirsty  family  feuds.  They  go  armed 
and  have  been  accustomed  for  centuries  to  carry  on 
murderous  vendettas  among  themselves.  Their  coun- 
try is  a  roadless,  rail-less,  riverless  desert  of  very 
steep  and  barren  mountains  for  the  most  part,  though 
in  south-western  Albania  there  are  extremely  fertile 
valleys.  Hospitable  to  the  few  individual  strangers 
who  travelled  in  their  land  (who  were  before  the  war 
chiefly  Austrian  agents  and  young  Englishmen  of 
adventurous  tastes),  they  have  always  been  formid- 
able neighbours.  The  Greeks  used  to  have  a  signifi- 
cant proverb,  used  to  encourage  people  in  distress: 
"  Don't  despair.  God  is  not  an  Albanian."  The 
Turks  claimed  to  be  the  overlords  of  Albania  from 
the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  till  1912,  but  their 
rule  amounted  to  nothing  more  than  spasmodic  at- 
tempts at  the  exaction  of  tribute,  which  usually  led 
to  the  massacre  of  the  soldiers  sent  to  collect  it. 
Turkish  sovereignty  consequently  manifested  itself 
by  little  more  than  the  conferring  upon  some  Alba- 
nian feudal  chief  the  title  of  Pasha. 

After  the  Balkan  wars  followed  the  misguided 
attempt  of  the  Powers  to  settle  the  condition  of  these 
wild  clansmen  in  the  heart  of  Europe  by  giving  them 
a  German  king — the  Prince  of  Wied.  He  exercised 
a  ridiculous  semblance  of  sovereignty,  while  the 
Greeks  entrenched  upon  his  realm  in  the  south  and 
the  Austrians  in  the  north.  Essad  Pasha,  one  of  the 
great  Albanian  Beys  of  the  north,  who  had  begun 
as  the  Prince's  Minister  of  War,  was  driven  away 
by  the  jealousy  of  the  Austrians,  who  dominated  the 
so-called  "  Mpret  of  Albania."  They  even  bom- 


302         THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

barded  his  house  with  a  field-gun  at  600  yards'  range 
the  last  night  he  was  in  Durazzo,  in  the  hope  of  put- 
ting an  end  to  his  career.  So  Essad  went  away,  then 
returned  and  drove  out  the  Prince,  and  became  Presi- 
dent of  Albania  in  his  stead,  until  he,  too,  was  com- 
pelled to  leave  his  country  by  the  Austrian  invasion. 

The  one  sentiment  which  the  turbulent  inhabitants 
of  Albania  seem  to  have  in  common  is  a  fierce  deter- 
mination that  Albania  shall  remain  independent. 
They  hate  the  Greeks,  whose  bands  of  irregulars  have 
attempted  to  secure  southern  Albania  for  their 
country  by  the  simple  process  of  massacring  the  non- 
orthodox  Albanians  who  live  there.  Leskovici,  a 
beautifully  situated  and  once  prosperous  town  on  the 
solitary  road  across  Albania,  is  now  no  more  than  a 
heap  of  burnt-out  ruins,  every  Mohammedan  house 
there  having  been  destroyed  by  Greek  bands  in  1913. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  war  the  Albanians  were 
inclined  to  desire  the  victory  of  the  Central  Powers, 
because  they  believed  that  this  would  secure  the 
autonomy  of  Albania,  which  had  been  championed  by 
Austria  at  the  Conference  of  London  in  1913.  They 
feared  that  the  triumph  of  the  Entente  would  mean 
the  division  of  Albania  between  the  Greeks  and  the 
Serbs.  The  need  of  foreign  protection  they  recog- 
nise, but  they  cannot  make  up  their  minds  whose  pro- 
tection they  would  like. 

Albanian  misgivings  as  to  the  intentions  of  the 
Entente  with  regard  to  their  country  have  been,  how- 
ever, considerably  modified  by  the  action  both  of 
France  and  Italy  in  proclaiming  the  independence  of 
Albania  in  the  sectors  of  the  country  which  they 
occupy.  To  add  to  the  confusion  which  seems  the 


WHAT  IS  HAPPENING  IN  ALBANIA  303 

inexorable  fate  of  this  distressful  country,  however, 
the  Austrians  have  also  proclaimed  the  independence 
of  Albania  in  their  zone  of  occupation  in  the  north. 

The  French  carried  out  this  measure  with  great 
thoroughness  of  detail,  making  Korytza,  an  impor- 
tant town  in  a  fertile  valley  on  the  trans-Albanian 
road,  the  capital  of  the  new  republic.  They  hoisted 
as  national  standard  the  double-headed  black  eagle  of 
Scanderbeg,  a  mediaeval  Albanian  chief  who  has  been 
glorified  into  a  national  hero.  They  issued  postage- 
stamps,  created  a  paper  currency,  founded  an  "  Al- 
banian gendarmerie  "  800  or  900  strong,  and  entrusted 
the  government  of  the  Korytza  region  under  French 
tutelage  to  a  "  Chamber  of  Deputies  "  of  fourteen 
members,  seven  Mussulmans  and  seven  Christians.  I 
had  the  honour  when  visiting  Korytza  of  being  re- 
ceived in  full  session  of  this  body,  and  having  con- 
ferred upon  me  the  honorary  citizenship  of  the  "  Re- 
public of  Albania,"  and  my  surprise  was  not  small 
when  Colonel  Descoins,  the  French  officer  who  pre- 
sided over  the  proceedings,  pointed  out  the  best- 
dressed  deputy  present,  a  robust  and  middle-aged 
gentleman  looking  like  a  prosperous  local  banker,  as 
Themistocles  Germeni,  a  noted  leader  of  comitadji 
bands,  who  had  until  a  few  months  before  been  in  the 
pay  of  the  Austrians  as  a  captain  of  irregulars,  but 
had  been  won  over  by  the  proclamation  of  the  inde- 
pendence of  Albania  to  such  an  extent  that  he  had  be- 
come the  prefect  of  police  of  the  new  republic. 

During  the  short  life  which  this  district  has  had 
under  French  military  suzerainty,  the  indication  has 
been  evident  of  the  possibility  of  prosperity  for  Al- 
bania under  firm  government.  Banditism  and  assas- 


304        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

sination  have  ceased  in  the  region  patrolled  by  French 
troops,  and  the  budget  of  the  little  "  republic,"  £1,800 
a  month,  covers  the  public  expenditure.  In  the  west- 
ern part  of  the  Italian  sphere,  which  had  only  been 
occupied  a  month  before  I  got  there,  the  condition 
in  which  our  Allies  found  the  population  was  one  of 
terrorism  and  starvation.  The  only  authority  was 
exercised  by  the  bands.  The  people  were  living  in 
the  most  abject  poverty.  You  could  buy  a  child  for  a 
loaf  of  bread,  and  as  an  officer  said  to  me:  "  A  com- 
pany of  bakers  will  do  more  to  keep  this  country  in 
order  than  a  company  of  riflemen." 

The  Albanians  are  by  no  means  unintelligent,  sav- 
age and  primitive  though  they  look  in  their  national 
dress  of  white  or  black  frieze  with  a  little  skull-cap  on 
their  close-cropped  heads,  and  now  that  the  road  right 
across  Albania  to  Santi  Quaranta  has  been  put  in 
order,  you  can  motor  the  whole  way,  though  up 
gradients  and  round  such  hairpin  bends  as  make  it, 
I  should  say,  the  most  dangerous  road  in  Europe, 
through  a  series  of  valleys  which,  as  you  approach  the 
Adriatic,  become  more  and  more  fertile  and  beautiful, 
their  slopes  being  thickly  wooded  and  the  ground 
looking  capable  of  responding  richly  to  cultivation. 
The  increasing  use  of  this  road  by  Italian  motor- 
transport  from  Santi  Quaranta  leads  to  constant 
attempts  by  the  Austrians  to  get  down  to  it  and 
interrupt  the  service.  These  are  usually  made 
through  the  mountains  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Korytza  where  the  road  lies  nearest  to  the  territory 
that  they  occupy.  Both  sides  employ  Albanian  ir- 
regulars for  the  most  part,  who,  no  matter  on  which 
side  they  fight,  are  all  of  them  enrolled,  curiously 


WHAT  IS  HAPPENING  IN  ALBANIA  305 

enough,  in  the  name  of  the  "  independence  of  Al- 
bania," and  paid  three  francs  a  day  with  rations  of 
three  pounds  of  flour  and  thirty  centimes  a  day  for 
meat.  These  comitadjis,  whose  military  quality  is 
not  of  the  best,  and  whose  allegiance  is  often  dubious, 
are  stiffened  on  either  side  by  detachments  of  Aus- 
trian or  French  regulars. 

I  happened  to  be  at  Korytza  when  one  of  these 
Austrian  attacks  occurred.  Two  days  previously  I 
had  been  out  with  Colonel  Descoins  to  visit  the  ruined 
town  of  Moschopol  in  the  mountains  north  of  Korytza, 
once  one  of  the  most  flourishing  places  in  Albania, 
but  burnt,  sacked  and  left  without  a  single  living  in- 
habitant by  a  Mohammedan  band  in  1914.  While 
we  were  there  a  peasant  came  in  who  had  made  the 
journey  across  the  mountains,  and  told  the  interpreter 
of  a  concentration  of  some  1,200  enemy  comitadjis, 
accompanied  by  Austrian  regulars  with  machine- 
guns,  at  a  village  four  or  five  hours'  march  away. 
Two  days  later  this  force  was  reported  on  the  move, 
with  the  avowed  intention  of  retaking  Korytza.  So 
the  Albanian  irregulars  in  the  pay  of  the  French 
were  mobilised  and  sent  up  into  the  mountains  to 
meet  them.  The  process  of  putting  on  a  war-footing 
the  militia  of  the  republic  of  Korytza  was  very  sim- 
ple, and  must  have  resembled  the  way  in  which  the 
old  independent  towns  in  the  Middle  Ages  assembled 
their  citizens  to  resist  an  aggressive  neighbour.  The 
comitadjis,  who  the  day  before  had  been  shop- 
keepers or  blacksmiths  or  small  cultivators,  were  sum- 
moned by  the  town-crier,  served  out  with  captured 
Austrian  rifles,  200  rounds  of  ammunition  and  a  loaf 
of  bread,  and  then  drifted  off  at  their  leisure  in  little 


306        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

parties  under  their  own  leaders  up  into  the  hills.  It 
was  impossible  to  concentrate  them  into  a  collected 
force,  for  each  little  band  would  only  obey  the  orders 
of  its  particular  captain,  and  most  of  them  had  long- 
standing quarrels  of  such  acuteness  with  the  other 
groups  that  if  they  were  brought  into  too  close  inter- 
course there  was  the  chance  that  they  might  start 
fighting  among  themselves. 

Quite  a  number  of  these  inhabitants  of  Korytza 
had  been  to  America  for  two  or  three  years,  and  re- 
turned after  making  a  little  money,  and  it  was  aston- 
ishing to  be  addressed  in  a  broad  Yankee  twang  by 
armed  individuals  who  looked  like  nothing  so  much 
as  brigands  of  the  mountains.  I  was  standing  at  a 
street-corner  talking  to  an  American  ambulance  man 
when  a  straggler  of  the  forces  which  we  relied  upon 
for  our  defence  went  past ;  he  was  a  peculiarly  fierce- 
looking  native,  in  short  jacket,  tapering  pantaloons 
and  shoes  with  up-curling  toes,  and  had  a  big-bore 
rifle  flung  across  his  shoulders  and  a  large  old- 
fashioned  silver-plated  ivory-handled  revolver  stuck 
into  his  belt.  He  looked  as  though  he  had  lived  in  a 
mountain  cave  all  his  life,  torturing  prisoners  for  ran- 
som, but  when  he  saw  us  his  sinister  features  expanded 
into  a  cheery  grin,  "  Wa-al,  boys,  I'm  off  to  the  war, 
you  see.  S'long,"  he  said,  and  left  us  agape. 

I  followed  this  heterogeneous  host  up  into  the 
mountains;  you  crossed  the  plain  for  four  miles  to 
their  edge,  and  then  passed  up  a  narrow  and  rocky 
gorge  to  the  village  of  Djonomas,  a  handful  of  rough- 
built  cottages  stuck  one  above  another  on  the  steep 
mountain-side  like  a  series  of  pigeon-cotes. 

Just  beyond  this  was  the  position  on  which  the 


WHAT  IS  HAPPENING  IN  ALBANIA  307 

defenders  of  Korytza  were  awaiting  the  enemy.  The 
reserve  line  was  held  by  elderly  French  soldiers  of 
the  Territorial,  under  the  command  of  a  gallant  and 
picturesque  old  captain  who  had  fought  in  the  war  of 
1870.  About  800  yards  ahead  on  the  next  ridge  were 
the  Albanian  irregulars,  each  little  band  under  its 
own  chieftain,  crouching  behind  the  rocks.  Nothing 
much  happened  that  night,  but  next  morning  we  were 
attacked.  We  could  see  the  enemy  irregulars  dou- 
bling over  the  next  sky-line  beyond  our  front,  and 
hiding  among  the  rocks.  Our  own  Albanians  imme- 
diately started  rapid  fire  at  a  range  of  over  1,000 
yards  at  any  point  where  they  saw  or  thought  they 
saw  something  moving.  I  went  up  to  their  line  with 
a  French  officer,  who  urged  their  leaders  at  all  cost 
to  economise  ammunition,  as  further  supplies  might 
be  long  in  coming  up.  But  as  the  Frenchman  knew 
no  Albanian  and  the  Albanians  extremely  little 
French,  our  irregular  Allies  persevered  in  this  their 
habitual  method  of  fighting.  For  the  Albanian  dis- 
likes encounters  at  close  quarters,  while  the  noise  of 
rapid  rifle  fire,  even  though  ineffectual,  has  an  uplift- 
ing effect  upon  his  spirits.  An  hour  or  two  later,  in 
consequence,  while  the  lie  of  the  position  was  being 
explained  to  a  French  staff -officer  who  had  just  come 
up  from  Korytza,  some  one  exclaimed  suddenly, 
pointing  to  a  ridge  which  was  about  500  yards  on  the 
left  of  our  reserve  line,  and  enfiladed  it,  "  Are  those 
people  ours  or  theirs?  " 

"  Oh,  ours,"  said  another  confidently.  "  Our  Al- 
banians have  been  there  all  the  morning,"  and  then,  as 
we  all  turned  our  glasses  in  that  direction,  "  they 
seem  to  be  facing  in  this  direction,  though.  Bon 


308        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

Dieu!  I  see  what  it  is.  Our  sacres  Albanians  are 
coming  away.  Those  are  the  enemy's  people  on  top 
there." 

This  diagnosis  of  the  situation  was  immediately 
confirmed  by  a  bullet  which  with  unusual  accuracy 
rapped  up  a  little  cloud  of  dust  right  in  the  middle  of 
our  group.  What  had  happened  was  perfectly  clear. 
The  Albanian  irregulars  on  our  side  had  used  up  all 
their  ammunition,  were  bolting,  and  had  almost  let  us 
be  surrounded. 

A  few  moments  later  our  unstable  allies  streamed 
past  us  down  the  hill  and  into  the  village.  The  ap- 
peals and  curses  of  the  French  officers  had  small 
effect,  being  very  little  understood.  This  was  the 
traditional  Albanian  method  of  fighting.  The  side 
that  used  up  its  ammunition  first  always  came  away, 
and  as  there  was  no  artillery  to  check  the  advance  of 
the  enemy,  the  only  thing  to  do  now  was  to  fall  back 
on  the  village  of  Voskop  at  the  other  end  of  the  gorge 
where  a  reserve  of  ammunition  was  to  be  found  and 
our  irregulars  could  be  persuaded  to  go  on  fighting. 
But  now  an  Albanian  leader  arrived,  very  breathless, 
with  the  disconcerting  news  that  the  enemy  had  got 
round  both  flanks,  and  were  waiting  on  the  top  of 
either  side  of  the  gorge  to  shoot  us  down  as  we  retired 
along  it.  This  proved  to  be  quite  untrue,  but  the  in- 
formation greatly  stimulated  the  eagerness  of  the 
Albanians  to  get  away.  There  were  a  few  horses  in 
the  village,  and  some  of  the  Albanians  seized  upon 
them  with  a  view  to  making  a  quicker  time  down 
the  gorge.  The  villagers  clung  onto  the  heads  of  the 
horses  and  a  free  fight  started.  As  it  all  took  place 
at  an  angle  of  the  street  which  was  about  the  size  of 


WHAT  IS  HAPPENING  IN  ALBANIA  309 

a  large  drawing-room,  the  combat  was  very  concen- 
trated. Clubbed  rifles  fell  with  heavy  thuds  on  shaven 
pates,  but  the  Albanian  head  is  solid  and  its  owner 
continued  to  fight  just  as  violently  with  blood  stream- 
ing over  his  face.  A  French  officer,  vigorously  curs- 
ing his  turbulent  auxiliaries,  was  in  the  middle  of  the 
melee  trying  to  disarm  the  leaders,  who  entered  with 
much  more  gusto  into  a  bickering  of  this  kind  than 
into  the  larger  encounter  which  they  had  just  deserted. 
Some  of  the  Albanians  began  to  shoot,  and  it  would 
really  have  been  dangerous  for  all  of  us  if  they  had 
not  in  their  excitement  fired  without  levelling  their 
rifles,  so  that  the  bullets  flew  up  in  the  air  over  every- 
body's head. 

Eventually  the  incident  was  settled  in  some  way 
and  the  retirement  continued  down  the  defile.  Before 
we  reached  the  end  of  it  we  met  some  French  Sene- 
galese advancing  with  grins  of  delight  to  take  part  in 
the  conflict,  which  was  particularly  to  their  taste 
because  there  was  no  artillery  concerned  in  it,  so  that 
there  was  a  good  chance  of  getting  to  close  quarters 
where,  as  they  said,  with  much  relish,  brandishing 
their  heavy  knives,  which  are  like  a  Ghurka's  kukri, 
"Coupe-coupe  va  travailler." 

There  were  two  mountain-guns  at  Voskop  which 
had  come  up  from  Korytza,  and  with  these  rein- 
forcements the  French  drove  the  enemy  right  back, 
not  only  out  of  the  village  he  had  temporarily  cap- 
tured, but  away  across  the  hills  beyond. 

The  situation  of  the  Allies  with  regard  to  Albania 
is  complicated  a  little  further  by  the  fact  that  while 
the  independence  of  the  country  is  being  proclaimed, 
Essad  Pasha,  whom  the  Entente  recognised  as  Presi- 


310        THE  STORY  OF  THE  SALONICA  ARMY 

dent  of  Albania,  is  living  at  Salonica,  with  his  flag, 
a  black  star  on  a  red  ground,  flying  over  his  house  as 
the  residence  of  the  President  of  Albania.  Essad  is  a 
big,  stalwart  man  of  fifty-two,  with  a  red  face,  black 
moustache,  alert  eyes  and  an  expression  of  vigour  and 
strength.  He  comes  of  an  old  Albanian  family 
called  the  Toptani.  (Top  means  cannon;  his  family 
once  had  a  gun  at  a  time  when  artillery  was  rare.) 
He  was  the  general  who  defended  Scutari  for  the 
Turks  in  the  first  Balkan  War.  When  he  had  re- 
placed the  Prince  of  Wied  as  ruler  of  Albania  he 
declared  war  on  the  Austrians  in  September,  1914, 
and  the  500  men  of  his  bodyguard  who  accompanied 
him  to  Salonica  are  fighting  on  the  Balkan  front, 
brigaded  with  the  French,  but  paid  by  him.  I  have 
had  several  conversations  with  Essad  Pasha  about  the 
future  of  Albania.  His  view  is  that  the  Powers  after 
the  war  should  re-establish  a  Commission  of  Inter- 
national Control,  with  functions  not  of  interference 
but  of  inspection,  such  as  was  working  there  before. 
A  native  gendarmerie  of  ten  to  fifteen  thousand  men 
would  be  provided  by  national  compulsory  military 
service;  it  would  be  commanded  by  foreign  officers, 
chosen  from  nationalities  that  have  no  interest  in 
Albania,  and  able  to  speak  either  Albanian  or  Turk- 
ish. The  old  Commission  of  International  Control 
had  already  drawn  up  a  form  of  constitution  for 
Albania  which  had  been  referred  back  to  the  govern- 
ments represented  upon  it  for  consideration  when  the 
great  upheaval  came.  It  provides  for  a  Chamber  of 
Deputies,  elected  without  regard  to  the  religious  dif- 
ferences that  divide  Albania  into  two  strongly  marked 
communities.  The  proposed  constitution  would  de- 


WHAT  IS  HAPPENING  IN  ALBANIA  sii 

pend  upon  a  common  race,  language,  tradition  and 
spirit  of  independence  to  overcome  that  difference 
and  unite  the  Albanians  into  one  people. 

The  idea  of  a  federation  of  Christian  and  Mussul- 
man cantons  on  the  Swiss  system,  which  has  been 
proposed  for  Albania,  is  not  regarded  with  favour  by 
Essad,  because  he  considers  that  it  would  emphasise 
the  existing  divergencies  of  religion  and  lead  to  hos- 
tility between  the  cantons.  A  loan,  according  to  him, 
would  not  be  necessary  if  the  regime  of  the  Capitula- 
tions, which  is  an  inheritance  of  the  old  Turkish 
days,  were  abolished,  so  that  the  eleven  per  cent. 
ad  valorem  customs  duties  could  be  raised.  Other 
sources  of  revenue  for  Albania  are: 

Port  and  lighthouse  dues, 

Taxes  on  forests,  mines  and  fisheries, 

Tobacco  Regie. 

Following  the  example  set  at  the  time  of  the  libera- 
tion of  Bulgaria  from  Turkey,  an  international  loan 
might  be  necessary  for  the  buying  out  of  Albania's 
share  of  the  Ottoman  Public  Debt. 

But  whatever  be  the  future  of  Albania, — and  it 
will  be  a  small  but  very  difficult  question  among  those 
which  the  Allies  will  have  to  settle  after  the  war, — 
the  Albanians  can  feel  assured  that  at  any  rate  we 
shall  not  make  the  mistake  of  giving  them  a  German 
prince  again. 


120464 


from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


